


"She always picks herself back up"

by some_fiction



Category: Daredevil (TV), Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Angst, Battle of New York (Marvel), Character Study, Crossover, Detective Noir, Dumpster buddies, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Humor, Jessica Jones (TV) Spoilers, Loss, Marvel Universe, Matt & Jess Reunion, Mostly Gen, Original Character(s), Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon, can be read as platonic or romantic, no need to have watched both shows ;)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24614263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/some_fiction/pseuds/some_fiction
Summary: A new case brings Veronica Mars to Hell's Kitchen where she is forced to seek help from people she got to know and alienate at Columbia law school. Things quickly go downhill when she meets the resident vigilante who seems painfully familiar in some way...
Relationships: Veronica Mars & Matt Murdock, past Veronica Mars/Logan Echolls
Comments: 85
Kudos: 42





	1. I haven't thought of you lately at all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I couldn't help it. Ashevillain, writer of the amazing fic “What They Wouldn't Do”, suggested a Daredevil / Veronica Mars crossover a while ago and now that I'm finally up to date with the new season, I checked and only found one nice, but short story from 2015.  
> So I started writing about how Matt and Veronica crossed paths at Columbia and met again after the events of the new VM season and Daredevil season 3. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the last seasons of both shows and this is AU, because Veronica Mars doesn't exist in the Marvel universe. I will just assume that the comment Logan makes about Veronica being more into the green guy than Bruce Banner was about a real person, not a comic book character… ;)
> 
> Otherwise, I haven't changed anything. Nope, not even that. So, if you were thinking about watching the new season, please do so before diving into this. I liked it, way more than the film we got in between and I'd love for them to continue from there. (I’ll be happy to discuss it in the comments, but fair warning: I'm not done processing...) However, I also think Veronica turning up in Hell’s Kitchen would be amazing, so here's how that goes…

Looking back it is a little ironic how I associated living in New York to work for a law firm as the grownup boring choice compared to being a detective in Neptune - even after “the incident” brought all the ugly cracks to the surface. But I left, because I felt I was needed more somewhere else.

Of course the longer you live somewhere the more you see and experience the corruption in that place. So the ones born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen knew the struggles of their neighbourhood best. I knew the rich, the famous and the manipulative sociopaths who were running things in my hometown, but Nelson, Murdock & Page were dealing with their own versions of them. And against all odds we all won… mostly. Even if we had to sacrifice a lot along the way.

The spike in vigilantism in recent years should probably have been a giveaway that I would find an interesting case in New York that required the talents of a petite blonde with a habit of siding with the underdogs. But the jury was still out on whether a certain “Devil of Hell’s Kitchen” was one of those or just a narcissistic rich boy with a hero complex who likes to beat up criminals for fun. 

The first time I got a glimpse of him it did seem like he was enjoying himself quite a bit - like a kid who came out to play with the bad guys. It was impossible however to get his smirk on camera which made me question if I really saw it later or if that was just what I wanted to see. The streetlamps weren't offering a lot of light and he merged with the shadows just too easily. And if it was true that he could hear the people in his city call for him somehow, then he must not have been very interested in a chat with me.

So I had to use my Columbia contacts after all. Not that I didn't look forward to seeing Franklin Nelson again. In fact “Foggy” was one of the few people I actually got along with, but things went a little awkward after I started to investigate his best friend and accused him of faking his blindness and lying to his buddy. I've been wrong a couple of times about awful things, but when Matt Murdock’s pupils didn't react to my flashlight at all, that was one of the more embarrassing mistakes of my life and it was one of the reasons why I wanted to leave my PI past behind for good. In my defense: I was just trying to help Nelson who was obviously upset when his friend got tangled up with this mysterious girl and got uncharacteristically behind in his studies. It seemed like he got mixed up in something really dangerous...

I didn't mention how I followed the tracker that I planted under the car of a certain Elektra Natchios one night and how I knew about the police picking up a bloodied Roscoe Sweeney - the man responsible for the death of Murdock’s father. Obviously, she helped him get his revenge. I was there that night and I saw them carrying the man into an ambulance, no trace of the couple that was responsible for this. And I also didn't ask where that Greek girl disappeared afterwards either. 

It was none of my business and she didn't show up again, so Murdock didn't need to know just how much I'd overstepped his boundaries - how much I do that on a regular basis, actually. Luckily, he did not mention anything to his friend and I was miraculously off the hook for some reason. It didn't help though that I felt like an ass whenever I met them and Murdock also seemed... different.

So, things weren't great between us which is why I didn't try to contact them in the first place. But when I lost the Devil again I had to try and talk to the lawyers and the former journalist that seemed to be associated with him the most. Surprisingly enough, Foggy Nelson was actually excited to hear from me, when I called him to ask for a favour. He immediately invited me to come by their office and he was so sure that his partner would also be glad to bond about our time at law school that I almost believed we could leave past differences behind us. 

The lawyer was much less enthusiastic however when he opened the door to me. He almost seemed a bit nervous. And I didn't think this had anything to do with the place not exactly oozing success. He even seemed a little proud when he offered me a piece of a cake that they took as payment for their last case. (And rightfully so, because it tasted like heaven.) Nelson had made it clear back in law school that he intended to earn a lot of money, so most people expected him to go for a safe career, but I thought this place made a lot of sense. And I met lawyers with huge paychecks, but they rarely seemed as happy as this guy who really struggled to keep his little firm running. As long as he was doing it for the right reasons, with his friends, Foggy Nelson was gonna be fine. And I was sure if he knew what I accused his best friend of doing he’d never talk to me again. So I had to win his trust.

After sharing a couple of old anecdotes with the cake it was easy to get more comfortable with him again and I was about to ask about the man in tights when a pretty blonde joined us, to investigate what the laughter was all about.

“Karen!” Nelson grinned, waved at her and turned back to me. “Let me introduce you to our in-house investigator, the brilliant Karen Page…” 

The former journalist shook my hand with a small smile and reddening cheeks. I couldn't help feeling scrutinised under her curious eyes, though. "Don’t listen to him. I’m still starting out here. Nice to meet you!” 

This woman was somehow not what I expected after reading up on her. Maybe it was the flowery blouse or the warmth that took me by surprise, the lack of professional coldness that fierce reporters always seemed to wear. But she had an aura of caution around her that made me think that there was more behind the friendly front. I can tell when someone is good at pretending like me. “Foggy told me that I could learn a thing or two from you,” she added charmingly. And maybe she could, but her articles already showed that she had some impressive investigative skills of her own, without a daddy who could show her all the tricks.

Of course I was able to match her flattering comment: “I think the Bulletin would disagree. Why did they even let a promising writer like you go?” She laughed and looked away uncomfortably, either because of the compliment or because of the suspicion my rhetorical question implied. Page didn't like being observed any more than I did, that much was clear. She probably knew something she didn't want to share with her paper, I was sure of it. Maybe something about the Bulletin attack that the supposed fake Daredevil was involved in...

“And Murdock? He isn’t joining us, is he?” Nelson’s eyes shortly traveled towards a door to another office.

“Um… Matt won't be able to, because he's busy with a case. He’s gone to question a witness.” 

Right. That was definitely a lie. So, Murdock was still avoiding me and I couldn't blame him. It's not like we only had hostile interactions before, but those were the ones I remembered more vividly and maybe it was the same for him. Or he still had secrets that I could dig up. I still thought there was something off about him… But that day in his office I told myself: Veronica, you are not supposed to go down that road again. Remember the case? Leave the blind man alone.

“Well, maybe I can catch up with him some other time at Josie’s. If you're still going there...” I wasn't going to. 

“You should do that.”

“Although… he doesn't always join us there,” Karen added hastily.

“Still the old dork then?” Good, maybe after getting justice for his father's murder he stayed away from trouble.

"Yeah, still the same…” Foggy tried to suppress a bitter laugh then. “Anyway, what's that favour you wanted to ask?”

The lawyer tried to smile again, but it felt a little strained now and I couldn't help noticing how tense Karen got next to him as well. No, these two were hiding something, but whatever Murdock’s secret was they seemed to be in on it which was a bit of a relief. Or maybe he just told them about my accusation after I contacted their firm. That would explain how Nelson's mood changed since our phone call.

Hopefully they’d still decide to help. “Well, if you want to get right to it: I was wondering if you could help me find Daredevil.” Both of them raised their eyebrows almost as if they didn't hear that request all the time. (They had to, right?) “You've worked with him and I…. I need his help.” I offered Nelson my most dazzling smile. “For old time's sake?”

He nodded slowly. “Um, it's not like we have his number or anything. He usually comes to us, but we can try something, maybe...”

“What's this about?” Karen wanted to know first. Was she being a little protective? Her writing sure implied that she was team Daredevil... and also team Punisher somehow.

“You can tell him that my client is missing something since she had an encounter with him when he saved her life. A little bag that she lost in the confusion and she needs it back.”

The blonde crossed her arms and squinted a little under her lashes. “You're not here to get another documentary made revealing Daredevil’s identity, are you?”

Okay, so obviously Page did her research, too. Good for her. I found a serial bomber who was an attention seeking asshole and got a couple of filmmakers to tell his story. But he was still rotting in a cell, so that's what mattered in the end. As much as I wanted him dead for what he did.

“I didn't even help their stupid documentary. But it got me a couple of cases outside of Neptune, so here I am.”

I sincerely hoped they would drop it, but of course they didn't...

"Good job on that case by the way.” An innocent comment, to be fair. But whatever I accomplished wasn't good enough though and that thought made me take a deep breath. Nelson quickly noticed his mistake and tried to soften the blow with a hesitant smile. 

If they watched the documentary, they must have understood that I needed a fresh start after what happened. The two then came to some silent conclusion together and I braced myself for what the lawyer would say next: "Okay, we can... try…" I saw Page nod in agreement to my astonishnent. "But Daredevil does whatever he wants. He might not show up.”

As much as I hated being pitied and I was sure that's what was happening, at least it served a purpose. “Thanks! You're a lifesaver, Nelson…” 

“Foggy.” His grin was finally back. “And I leave the life saving job for our hero…”

That is a strong word. Hero. I was not sure if it applied to the guy I was looking for, but I kept my mouth shut. Everyone has demons and I got what I came for. Better not risk it. “Just let him know I'll be where he was yesterday at around midnight. Can you do that?”

“We’ll try.”

Afterwards we chatted some more about law school and Karen, who also offered her first name to me, really enjoyed the stories that Nelson apparently hadn't shared with her yet. The inside scoop to his first dates with Marci Stahl. I was also really surprised to hear that she was going to get married to this goofball and I actually felt happy for them. Personal growth, guys. My therapist would have been proud.

Logan would have been proud. 

I still declined Foggy’s dinner invitation. Sometimes you have to know your limits, too. But checking in at Josie's did seem a little more appealing after actually bonding about law school for real. Even if it was just to change the topic.

When I got back to my hotel I decided to take a better look at the photos I took of the man I had a creepy back alley date with now. He sure knew how to avoid my camera, but I made a video as well and something about his fighting felt a little familiar. But I couldn't put a finger on it. It was impressive though, the way he worked. His moves were elegant and powerful at the same time, it looked effortless, cocky and yet it was obviously very effective.

This guy didn't break an arm by accident. He either enjoyed it a little too much or he had a real good reason for it. Maybe more than one.

The five jerks who wanted to rob a petrol station were all bleeding on the floor within a few minutes and he just vanished. On one of the pictures it looked like a criminal got him with a knife, but if he did, it didn't even slow the Devil down. Maybe he was invulnerable or something. This was the town of the Avengers after all.

I arrived at the petrol station to meet the guy in question a bit early when suddenly there was a voice out of nowhere going: “Drop the camera.”

Sure... and break the most important tool for my work. I rolled my eyes. Some hero.... “I’ll put it away safely, if you don't mind.” After doing so I held up my hands in a defensive gesture and smiled. “Happy?”

“I’ll break your fingers if you go for the taser or the gun.” Not that happy then.

“Fair warning. How do you know I'm armed?”

“Lucky guess.” Yeah, I was not gonna meet a violent vigilante without any form of security. I'm not an idiot.

After a tense second his silhouette appeared out of nowhere and yeah, it was a little intimidating, the little black ensemble, the creepy head tilt, arms covered in robes that had some blood on them and the closed fists. Was he already angry with me for some reason? 

“Page told me something about a bag you're looking for?” He was making his voice sound rough and deep and I tried hard to memorize it.

“Yeah, you could help me make some quick money. You saved a girl last week-”

“I do that a lot.” A bit full of himself, huh? But also: Probably true. “Don't know anything about a bag. The police might-”

“The police didn't find it.” I crossed my arms. “And the criminals were unconscious with broken bones, so they couldn't have taken it either. There was nobody else that night.”

“Are you accusing me of stealing from the people I save?!”

I shrugged my shoulders. “You wouldn't be the first hero who got into the business for fame and money. Hey, as far as I'm concerned: Why shouldn't you take a little bit for the service you provide, huh? I just wanna get my client's stuff back. You can keep the money.”

“How generous.” He chuckled. “Did your... client tell you that?”

“Not in those words… no. But I'll just tell her the money was gone.” She also didn't really explain what exactly she was doing in that area which was a bit shady. “She told me you broke her arm. Is that true?”

He didn’t even think before answering. “Don't remember.” 

That's when I saw someone move on top of a building with a clear view into this alley. Before I could warn the vigilante, he grabbed me and quickly shoved me behind a dumpster. “Did you tell anyone that you were meeting me?”

“That question is an insult and I'll pretend I didn't hear it.”

I swear I saw him smirk for a sec. “Okay, here's what we do: I’ll run around the corner there and you’ll just take the other direction. He'll go after me.”

“What if I'm the target?”

“Possible. I've only just met you and I already wanted to knock you out twice.” That had to be a joke, right?

“Well, I'm glad I had the sense to come armed, then.”

“We have to move. Use the distraction to get away.” He slowly stepped towards the edge of the dumpster getting ready to run and I had a bad feeling about this. Sure, I didn't tell anyone about meeting him, anyone apart from the team at Nelson & Murdock that is. But it still felt planned and I certainly had to look at my client a little more closely.

And maybe at Nelson & Murdock as well.

When Daredevil started running I went after him, fully intending to follow his suggestion and go the other way, but when I saw a bullet hit his shoulder I made a quick decision to stay with him. I had to make sure he was alright, especially since Foggy set this up for me.

Daredevil however did not appreciate my concern and quickly pinned me against the wall to growl at me. “What are you doing?!” This was probably the third time he wanted to knock me out.

I tried to shove him away roughly. “You were hit! I was worried, asshole.”

As if confused for a moment, he held me in place, then shook it off and let go of me. I don't know why I didn't get my gun out right then, but I told myself that we were on the same side. Not that I trusted him, but in my experience it was always better to pretend like you do to make others let their guard down. I treated him like a wild wounded animal and hoped he wouldn't hurt me. Of course, back then I was unaware that this guy didn't even let his guard down around his best friend who was the most loyal and trustworthy individual I've ever met, maybe only rivaled by Wallace. 

I was about to ask him about his injury when he held up his hand to stop me. “Someone's coming….”

Since I had hopefully showed him that I wasn't an enemy I opened my bag and had the sense to ask for permission before I reached inside. “Do you mind if I….?” 

“You're not shooting anyone…”

So maybe it was true that the real vigilante didn’t take lives and the reports of Daredevil killing’s were the result of an even more violent imposter after all. “Not to kill I won't.” 

Clearly running out of time, he gritted his teeth. “Fine.”

I took my gun in both hands while my new involuntary ally held up his billy club, just when I also started hearing footsteps.

And this was how it all began...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to add a a note: This story dances around some sensitive themes sometimes and has angsty bits, but I didn't feel like Archive Warnings were necessary. Please feel free to yell at me in the comments or on tumblr if you feel differently and I'll adjust. If you're unsure, write to me, but honestly, anyone who's watched these shows and survived should be fine! :)
> 
> Okay, updates will be slow, because I don't have a lot of time, but I've finished every other story so far. ;)
> 
> Thoughts?


	2. And You Know What You're Doing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not good at action. Sorry... :) But I tried?

This was obviously a planned ambush. But I didn't have any time to think about how these people could have known that I was gonna meet the vigilante that night and why they seemed to want him dead so badly. All that mattered was staying alive - for both of us, because I still needed answers. Remembering how my new ally had fought in the dark the night before, I tried to even our odds by shooting at the street lamp that was providing the only light in this area, just when our attackers came around the corner from the direction of the petrol station. "You better leave us alone," I warned. It was worth a try.

One of them just laughed and from his silhouette I could guess that he was pointing his gun at me, but it was immediately knocked out of his hand by one of the Devil's neat billy clubs. After that all other weapons - as far as I could see - were qickly aimed at him and I used the opportunity to hide behind a dumpster. Luckily, Daredevil was moving way too fast for their bullets and he had already kicked one of the men to the ground, even before they started shooting - at his shadow apparently. I noticed that they also seemed to hold back. Maybe they were a little worried that one of them might just end up in friendly fire. Or they knew they had to save their ammunition with this guy.

However, I also just learned that Daredevil wasn't wearing bulletproof armour or anything, because I saw him get hit earlier, so I had to try and help him out, even if it just meant providing some distraction. After adjusting to the dark a little more I saw that one of the men seemed to take his time and tried to guess the vigilante's movements, I identified him as the biggest threat and put a bullet into his right arm. He immediately had to lower his gun and before he could start to look for me he received a hard kick in the gut.

That was unfortunately when another guy spotted me. I quickly jumped back behind the dumpster for cover. But I knew he was coming for me, so I ducked down and shot him in the knee. That managed to slow him down a bit and as I watched him hit the floor he uttered some colorful curses my way. Behind him I saw the masked man flip back while knocking someone out with a kick and simultaneously dodge bullets from behind.

Which was the moment I decided that I was a little out of my league of literal crime fighting. At least I had made sure the man in his black outfit was covered by the darkness, right? That must have been enough contribution. Unfortunately when I tried to make a run for it, out of nowhere someone grabbed me and I struggled against the much stronger guy until I felt steel at my throat and I froze. A voice next to my ear whispered: "Drop the weapon or you're dead."

This was not the ideal outcome.

I did as I was told mentally noting that Daredevil was still busy fighting others, so I couldn't really count on him to help me. Maybe I should have left when he told me to. He did this every night, right? Why did I have to get involved...? On the other hand: Could it be my fault they cornered him like this after all? I knew noone could have followed me, but what if I messed up in some other way?

The guy I shot in the knee was getting up from the ground and he looked like he would kill me if I tried anything. But he didn't shoot, because he had other plans. I was never really his concern. "You should have stayed out of it, bitch..." Then a little louder he added: "Listen up, hero! Stop moving or we'll kill her." 

Okay, there's nothing I hate more than being a damsel who needs to get saved. And this kind of thing does happen more often than I'd like to admit. Any wisecracking comments immediately died on my tongue when the fighting stopped and I saw Daredevil frozen, standing over the men he was beating up and breathing heavily. I guessed that the blood dropping from his fists wasn't his, but I wasn't sure. There were only two men left conscious and they scrambled for their weapons. Armed again they quickly regained their confidence, aiming smugly at the man who was punching them bloody with his bare hands only seconds ago.

Now losing his interest in me, the man who threatened my life before turned his attention back to the Devil. He was limping slowly towards his real target with his injured knee, while the vigilante was tilting his head in an eery way. I thought they were gonna shoot him any second and I just watched as the guy who appeared to be their leader put his gun away and reached for something on the floor that looked like one of the masked man's sticks. I saw him hit the vigilante with his own weapon several times, until he was kneeling on the floor and spitting blood. "How do you like this, 'hero'?!", the man yelled. "I hope you do, because we've got a couple of questions that you will answer now."

I desperately looked around for anything that could help us get out of this, when the guy keeping me in place turned my head to keep watching the scene unfold. "Look what's in store for you. When we're done with him it's your turn." He chuckled. "This is what you'll get for shooting at me."

Then I saw it again. The Devil's smirk when he seemed to look in my direction. Was he keeping them busy...? And that's when I remembered that the creep behind me apparently still had a bullet stuck in his right arm and he was holding the gun in his left hand. So he was vulnerable enough for me to... 

"Ouch! Ugh... What the....?!" When you end up in dangerous situations as regularly as me and you're as small as me you better learn to use the fact that people underestimate you to your advantage. While the guy behind me was tough, I knew he didn't expect me to put up much of a fight and I knew several places to hurt him if he wasn't paying attention. And he was gleefully watching the others beating up the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. All I had to do was make sure I wouldn't get shot while attacking him and I was counting on his reflexes with his left hand not being that great. 

Still, it was surprising that all it took was a well placed elbow to his injury and a quick twist of his left arm to take his weapon, before sending him to the ground with a kick between his legs. "I decided it was your turn not mine."

When I looked back Daredevil had already taken two of his attackers down also and the third one decided it wasn't worth it after all and ran off. The vigilante took a deep breath and held his arm clearly in pain before he jogged towards me. "Are you alright...?", he asked.

Still a little out of it I stared at the man right in front of me who - as I just realised - forgot to lower his voice and sounded much less like one of those heroes who are in the news frequently and more like a normal dude who was just looking out for his neighbourhood. How about that?

"Just a scratch or two. What about YOU?" I did not forget about the bullet in his shoulder either.

He waved off my concern like it was nothing. "I'll be fine." Then he flinched for a second before a mad smile spread on his face, or at least on the lower part I could see. Great, Veronica, another insane person you're starting to care about a little bit. I laughed.

"Who are these people...?" 

The masked man tilted his head. "No idea." Since he was no help I started searching one of them. "You won't find anything. I doubt that they are carrying clues around telling us who they are working for."

"No...! Hitmen don't carry business cards on a job? How unprofessional." He was right though. There wasn't much that could help. I fished a short shopping list out of one pocket and another guy had a receipt for cigarettes.

The vigilante just watched me from a distance and looked a little curious. I offered to show him the little pieces of paper, but he just asked if there was anything helpful on it. "I don't know yet." Getting impatient he then came to me and nudged me to move away. I walked around the corner with him still trying to make sense of this. Maybe the brand could become a lead later on. You never know. "And you're still insisting that you know nothing about the bag?", I tried again. 

All of a sudden his mood changed. "You know, you say you know what you're doing, but I'm not convinced you didn't almost get us killed tonight."

"Oh, you think you'd have been able to deal with all these guys and their guns, if they had seen you jumping around with the street lights on?"

"I'd have gotten the lights off any second myself, thank you. You were just quicker."

"It looked to me like you needed some distraction or you'd have gotten your ass handed to you by these people."

He snorted and crossed his arms. "Well, I guess we'll agree to disagree on that. Because I remember a reckless PI who got herself caught and me beaten. Is this how you usually work? Because I'm not impressed."

For the second time that night I did not have a comeback ready. When I started hearing sirens in the distance warning us about the police coming our way I turned around and walked back towards the unconscious bodies. I ignored that he was following me, until suddenly the Devil grabbed my arm and I lost it: "Don't you dare...!"

He let go of me and held up his hands. "I... sorry. I know you were trying to help, it just didn't..." And there he had the sense to shut up.

I was starting to understand why someone would go through so much effort to kill this guy. Maybe it was personal and had nothing to do with me. "Where are you going...?"

"I'm waiting for the officers. Maybe these guys can tell me something, since you obviously won't." My client told me the police didn't know anything about the bag, so I didn't ask them about it. But if what happened tonight was connected, even their questions could give me some ideas.

As I marched back Daredevil kept walking behind me for some reason, although the sirens were coming closer and closer. I was just starting to think that it may not be a good idea for him to stick around when I heard his lower voice again. "You're not going to tell them about Nelson, Murdock & Page setting this up, are you?"

"No. Nelson is a good guy."

He nodded. For a second I thought it might be a good idea to threaten the law firm if it could help making Daredevil cooperate, but then I heard him say: "Ask for Detective Mahoney." When I turned around he was gone.

Moments later the police arrived and I pretended that I was on a case and got attacked when the vigilante came and helped me out. I was surprised that Officer Stain was quite interested in my case. He even offered to check again if his colleagues didn't miss anything, but I said I would ask my client if she would provide any more details first. "You think our vigilante took it?"

"Honestly, I'm starting to think some small town criminal got lucky and threw in the garbage what he didn't need." I hoped not, because that would make it impossible for me to find the damn thing one week after it got lost.

"Maybe..." Then he pointed to some blood on the ground. "Any idea who was bleeding here?" 

"I barely saw anything, Sir. I was just trying to get out of this alive." It was probably the Devil, because I remembered him spitting blood in this area. Maybe I should help the police, but it's not like I really wanted for him to get arrested. In fact I did feel a little responsible that he got hurt, even if I was arguing with him minutes ago.

"Did you see where Daredevil went or where he came from?"

Shouldn't he be asking about the men who attacked us? Or me? I pointed towards the petrol station. "There?" I wasn't even sure what he was gonna do with that information. And I had no clue where the vigilante disappeared to anyway. It was a little annoying.

After that he did ask about the men they were arresting and it turned out he just hoped their prints were in the system and figured I wouldn't know anything helpful about them anyway. Maybe he was right (and Daredevil, too), that I wouldn't get anything from them. A shopping list won't help me solve this case. Especially if all written on it is pizza, milk, vegetables and beer.

The officer gave me his number. "In case you remember anything or you want me to take a closer look at some files..." He winked before he walked away.

I giggled and said I'd be in touch. Good to know I've still got it, the stupid Devil is just immune to my charm somehow.

Back in my shitty hotel room - it was the cheapest place that allowed animals - I fed my dog Pony and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep before I searched all my things for possible bugs and trackers. I checked everywhere: In my bag, my camera stuff and I looked at every possible hiding place in the room. There was nothing. Finally convinced that I hadn't led anyone to the vigilante somehow I went to sleep.

What if the law firm was the leak? Maybe Murdock was still mixed up in bad shit. But they worked with Daredevil before. Page was certainly concerned about his identity staying secret. I tried to remember what exactly we talked about and then suddenly it hit me: The men waiting for us didn't know when or where exactly we'd meet. I quickly took a look at the receipt again and cursed myself for not seeing it sooner.

The cigarettes were bought at the petrol station half an hour before I arrived there. But we were in the back, because that's where he was fighting the criminals the night before. A quick check on google told me that there were two news report about Daredevil activities the night before and one of them was about the robbery attempt I also witnessed. I said he could meet me where he was the day before around midnight. So it was probably an educated guess to wait at two possible sites for us, with a marksman watching on the roof. 

I quickly clicked on Foggy's number and wrote: "Careful, your office is bugged. Meet me in the morning before work."


	3. Schroedinger's Bag

It had been a while since I woke up from that dream. The sound of an explosion, glas spinters cutting my skin and a deep sudden sense of loss pulling me down, making it harder to face the day. Alone. But I always got up anyway, pushed these emotions aside and eventually felt bad for getting better. Guilt was still my constant companion, maybe it always will be. No matter how many people told me it wasn't my fault, I always thought I should have been smarter, I should have known. And maybe this was what I deserved for being so full of myself. I was surprised how easy it was to convince everyone, including myself, that I was moving on.

When I saw Foggy outside of his office the morning after I send him the message about the bug he was white as a sheet. "So, I guess you do know how to contact Daredevil."

"Yeah... it's complicated." He sighed deeply. "What are we gonna do? Find it and destroy it?"

"No. We can use this to find out who's listening."

"I was afraid you would say that." Obviously. Somehow that didn't make me suspect him of being more involved with the vigilante than it seemed. "Okay, here's the deal, Veronica: I'm not a spy. Any illegal activity around me does funny things to my tummy and - trust me - it will only take about two seconds for anyone who's listening to figure out that I know they're listening."

Looking back it is kind of funny how convincingly he was fooling me about not being able to fool anyone. But Foggy wasn't viewing me as an enemy back then, when he probably should have. Shrugging his shoulders helplessly he made a desperate face."I'll start rambling like a school boy sitting next to the class podhead, who forced me to hide his dope in my underwear..."

"Relax, Brian, noone is gonna ask you about your dirty little secret, that isn't even much of a secret. Anyone can guess that your firm is in contact with the Devil. As long as you don't know who he is you've got nothing to worry about." Alright, I see the irony there now. However, the vigilante was a good source, anyone would use his information and he would have been stupid to reveal his identity to his obvious allies...

But he wasn't very helpful to me back then, so I figured I just had to earn his trust first. Boy, was I off the mark this time. "Whoever this is knows about your connection to the vigilante, so it is in your interest, too, to find out who is trying to catch him."

"You think.... you think they were able to hear what we were talking in the entire office....?" Foggy had a lot to hide. But he was better at pretending than he gave himself credit for. To me maybe his involvement seemed just as unlikely as a blind man parcouring around Hell's Kitchen. And who wouldn't be nervous in a situation like this?

"Unless you were screaming they shouldn't have been able to hear anything from the next room. Not behind closed doors or through the walls. So, whereever the bug is, that's the room where we should be having our conversation to bait whoever is listening..."

Hearing that didn't help to calm him down at all. "You think all this was a plan to trap him?"

"It might have been. I'm not even sure that bag exists at this point." I was starting to think that I probably wouldn't hear from my 'client' again after this. Her details seemed normal, so I didn't really check that closely if they were wrong. She could have just pretended to be someone else....

Suddenly, I felt really bad for getting in touch with the lawyer about this, because he continued to look stressed out. And the worst part was that it felt like we could have been friends. But I always fuck these things up, don't I? "Foggy, I'm sorry..."

He sighed. "You couldn't have known."

Suddenly we heard footsteps from inside the building. Someone was rushing down the stairs so fast, I already had my hand on my taser when the pretty blonde from the office rushed out the door. "I found it!", she announced.

"What?" Foggy looked at me and we were both a little perplexed. "What are you doing here?! I told you-"

"I remembered someone coming in to ask about my services after your call this morning," Page hurried to explain. "This woman... she quickly left after tasting my coffee - so I thought this scared her off..." Foggy made a face telling me that this was entirely possible. Who picks a PI for the quality of their coffee? If anything that suggested that Karen Page had other skills. "But now I think that she never even intended to hire me. I found the bug next to our coffee machine-"

Hopefully that means she didn't destroy our only lead. "You didn't-"

"I left it there, don't worry." She shut my question down so quickly that I almost laughed. Partly, because she looked a little annoyed, but also because I could relate to her eagerness. "Here's the thing though: This was about a week ago."

So the bug was there even before I was contacted. I frowned and Foggy looked like he was calculating something. I shared my thoughts out loud: "That means it was about Daredevil all along. I knew they planned this attack on him..." At least if the office of Nelson, Murdock & Page was already bugged this wasn't my fault. And I couldn't have known.

"Wait, what happened? Did... did he get hurt?", Foggy asked and it was impossible to miss the concern in his eyes. So, I knew Page wasn't the only one who had sympathy for the Devil.

"He seemed fine before he disappeared." I tried to look encouraging. No reason to worry this guy any more. He acted like a nervous wreck as it was. Plus: I checked the hospitals this morning if anyone with a bullet wound came in, but I was already pretty sure that the vigilante must have a doctor who would keep secrets and treat him discreetly. Which is why it wasn't such a big surprise to me that nothing came up. I was a little relieved though that he wasn't found bleeding to death anywhere. That certainly would have been breaking news everywhere by then.

"This woman who placed the bug... what did she look like?"

"Small, dark short hair and she was wearing glasses." That discription already sounded familiar. Page thought for a moment, then she shared some more observations that could also very well fit my client. "She was funny, made a joke about our office when she came in. To be honest I thought she liked it. She said that other law firms always smelled more like money, not homemade lasagna. I was sure we were on the same page and then she left all of a sudden and never got in touch."

"Was her name Mary Richards?"

"No... I think it was something like Michaels? Jane maybe?"

Okay, not a very original name. "I think it's still the same woman who hired me. Maybe someone who's had bad experiences with lawyers... I don't think she gave any of us her real name."

Foggy leaned against the wall of the building. "We were lucky that we were busy with a big case lately, so I don't think she could have gathered much from our conversations by the coffee machine."

They were lucky? At some point I thought I needed to find out how Foggy Nelson got involved with a man taking the law into his own bloody hands. It didn't seem like him at all. Of course, later it became clear that he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Whether his firm was connected to him or not, he himself would always be close to this man. "You didn't talk about Daredevil there...?"

"That kind of talk usually happens in Matt's office and I don't try to think about it too much." Okay, that made more sense to me, since I already knew Murdock avenged his father's death somehow. It also explained why they ended their collaboration for a while after Fisk first got caught.

"So, he's the one who knows how to contact him?"

"No" - "Yeah..."

Nelson and Page both looked at each other in frustration, then the former secretary of the firm carefully concluded: "Okay, what matters is that your case is done, right? If your client was lying to you, I don't think you'll see your money..."

She was right. But what can I say? I was intrigued. I wanted to know what was going on there. Someone apparently picked me to poke at their firm and get some intel on the Devil. I wanted to know who used me like that. "Yeah, I'll need to take some new cases in Hell's Kitchen. Still... we could pretend that I'll keep digging until I get paid and maybe if she's still listening, she might give me a call." I was pretty sure this must have been a setup, so whoever hired me and placed the bug was also behind the attack on Daredevil and didn't get to him.

Karen Page smiled at that idea and Foggy cursed, but he didn't argue anymore, mumbling that he had a lot of work to do anyway and would just stay in his office the whole day.

We did our little performance without him. In fact we made a good team - I was complaining that I had hit a dead end and that I planned on finding out who hired the men who attacked us. I made clear that I would keep looking for the bag in that direction and Page offered to help in the investigation, too. We then quickly switched to small talk making it sound more natural which was a nice opportunity to get to know the PI a little bit, during which she had to remind me again to call her Karen. Happy with ourselves we even ended up giving us a silent high five before I left the office to check on my other leads.

Not that I had many. My client didn't pick up the phone, obviously, and the police officer promised to call me back with information on Daredevil's appearances the week prior. All social media accounts of the woman who hired me miraculously disappeared, but I still had a screenshot of her profile and Karen also confirmed to me that this was the woman who came to her to plant the bug. 

Since it really didn't seem like I would get paid I decided to take some other, smaller cases in Hell's Kitchen. But the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was still on my mind. For days I kept checking the news. There were no sightings of him. What if he died and just wasn't found yet? Or maybe someone caught him after all?

I didn't hear from my client either and the thugs who were arrested also didn't share more information. I got one of them to admit that they were hired to not kill the devil, but deliver him to some place. But like me he had no idea who hired him. It was a man however, so I knew I was at least dealing with two different people.

On the third day I found a message from Leo on my phone who was apparently informed by one of his FBI buddies that I was on a crime scene after Daredevil showed up. "Look, Veronica, I know that you're a strong independent woman and all, but I care about you and just... don't do anything rash, okay?" He chucked. "Shit... who am I talking to...? Anyway: I was worried, so I checked this guy out and he seems legit. I mean, I hate to say this as an FBI agent, but it sounds like my guys were corrupt and he helped getting the bad guys caught. All these murders that were linked to him were done by an impostor. Completely different MO. Still, the kind of criminals he deals with and the way he does it..." Leo sighed, probably biting his tongue before he could utter another useless warning. "Just, call me if you need help, okay? Any time of the day. Take care." I heard him curse once more, before ending the call.

When I called officer Stain again, he was in the middle of his lunch break, but still eager to share something with me that he found in a police report: One of the officers said that he saw Daredevil pick something up from the floor that the woman left. "Do you have a way to contact him? I could come with you if you're afraid and we could get you that bag back if you still need it."

"No need, officer. I think I'm dropping the case anyway. I haven't heard from my client since that night we met."

"Oh, alright," he did sound a little disappointed though. "To be honest I was just hoping I'd get to see you again..."

Huh... "Um... Sir..."

"Call me Rick, please..."

"Rick..." I smiled, hoping he'd hear it over the phone. "I'm just passing through. I wasn't going to stay in Hell's Kitchen..."

"Shit, I'm sorry. That wasn't very professional. I always read the signals wrong, you know? Please don't tell my boss...." 

"Relax! You didn't do anything wrong." He was actually taking this quite well. 

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Phew... Okay, whenever you change your mind or you're back in town...."

This one was an optimist it seemed. "Sure. Have a good day."

Gathering my notes I tried to think what this meant for my case. It sounded like Daredevil did lie to me and he took the bag after all. But if Leo's information on him was right and that also explained why Foggy and Karen were so loyal to the vigilante, then he must have had a good reason to keep this from me. Obviously he didn't trust me. Or he didn't trust my client. The one that apparently fled the crime scene and never actually talked to the police...

It was time to contact this Detective Mahoney. Maybe he could shed some light onto what the hell I stumbled into. The guy however seemed pretty busy and I had to leave a message for him. So with nothing left to do but wait I took a shower. I hated these cases where there weren't any real leads to follow. Most of the time there were many hints and I just had to grab the ones that made most sense. Follow my intuition. But all of this was a blurry fog with no real evidence. It was all a strange he said she said nothingness. And those were sometimes the most dangerous cases. Plus: I didn't even have a client. Maybe it was time to cut my losses, finish the work I picked to stay in town and look for a new case somewhere else.

My inbox seemed to agree, because it greeted me with this message: "What's up, kiddo! Here's your old man who barely survived a heart attack when this mad FBI agent called to say that my daughter was seen with a famous criminal. Of course I immediately informed him that my girl knows what she's doing. She went to law school after all and she would never ever get mixed up in vigilantism. Right? I don't have to worry about her doing anything insane, do I? Because I really have enough to worry about. Are you okay? Call me when you get this, Veronica. Please."

I hate Leo for dragging my dad into this. But I needed one more day to decide if I should leave this case alone. So I just send a text saying that I'm fine and that Pony was watching over me like a hawk. It was while I was taking the dog to a park that evening when things really got interesting. On my way back to the hotel I got a call and I immediately recognised his voice. "Check the fire exit behind your place." Before I could say anything he was gone.

The back alley behind my hotel wasn't the creepiest corner in this area in the daylight, but I was still nervous when I pulled down the screeching ladder that led up the side of the building and told Pony to wait for me. Five storeys up, I was able to look inside my window which was a little eery. When I wanted to move on I suddenly saw a small bag on the ground of the stairs, completely matching the description my "client" gave me. I quickly picked it up and when I looked around I caught a glimpse of a little head in the next window vanishing inside. "Hey, you!"

There was no sound of anyone moving away and the window was still open. "Don't be scared! I'm just playing a game with a friend."

Nothing, but I was sure the kid was listening. "You see the dog down there? Do you want to play with him?"

Slowly the little boy next door peaked out again and after seeing me smile at him he looked down at Pony wagging his tail. "He doesn't bite?"

"Only if I tell him to." I laughed. "Did you see who put this here?" Showing him the bag I gave him my sweetest grin and added: "He can do some really cool tricks. I can show you!"

The boy nodded and looked down at the dog again who was now starting to bark in excitement, unaware that I was practically pimping him out to that kid. "Can you describe the man to me?"

"It was a woman", he corrected me, now sceptical that I was playing with friends I didn't even know the gender of.

"Oh, that must be Penny or Carla. Was she blonde?"

He shook his head. "She had dark long hair. I think she was a nurse."

A nurse! Of course... I told the boy I'd meet him downstairs and he immediately disappeared to hurry for his new playmate.

I knew Daredevil was injured and he wasn't even seen active the last couple of days. It figures that he'd ask the person who patches him up to deliver a message for him. I looked at the bag, a token of trust and the first real evidence in this case. Now, I could probably try contacting the woman who hired me to get this bag back, but first I really needed to see what the hell was inside this thing.


	4. Team Marsdevil on the Case

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this took so long, put I figured out the story more clearly now, added suggestions from readers and have a couple of plotpoints I'm eager to get to. So, let's get this party started!

I was chasing this bag for days and when I almost gave up, it miraculously landed at my feet... or rather at the fire escape outside my hotel room. I was hoping that it would at least shed some light on what was happening, even if I wasn't sure if I should return it. But my biggest clue held more questions than answers. There was a small chance, though, that some of it could later lead me to the person who owned it, allegedly my client. Whoever lost the bag however, only carried the bare necessities. Some keys and a phone that was switched off. Turned back on the card asked for a PIN which meant it wouldn't be as easy as putting the SIM card into another phone to see what's on it. I quickly texted Mac that I needed her hacking skills to get into this thing and see what's on there. It suspiciously looked like a cheap burner phone, so I had to keep my expectations low about finding anything useful.

Which made me wonder: Why hire someone like me to retrieve this thing? Nothing in this bag looked like it was expensive - or more expensive than my fees. They could have used anyone from Hell's Kitchen to try and get it back. Then again, I already thought the bag wasn't really what "Mary Richards" was after. She was after the Devil. She planted the bug. Maybe that bag was just her best way of finding him and if he parted with it he already new that there wasn't anything important in there.

Or he took from it what he needed and left the rest to me?

Before I could consider this further, my dog almost crashed into me to get back his ball while the kid from my hotel neighbour apologised politely. Jimmy seemed to be tiring Pony out, so I used the opportunity to slow their game down and keep the dog by my side for a bit. "Hey, you're having fun, right?" He stared at the ball with his tongue hanging out and ears straight up, ready to chase after it when I held it up as if I was about to throw it. I took this as an enthusiastic yes and decided to give him a little snack for energy first.

"Ma'am", the kid immediately understood that it was time for a break. "Why's the dog called Pony?" He looked a little worried that he'd made a blunder and would lose his playing rights. 

Petting the dog's head I grinned: "Because I always asked my dad for a pony and he never got me one."

"But that's not a horse." 

I laughed. "It's a joke."

That concept seemed to blow his mind and he came to sit next to me. I gave him something to also treat his new furry buddy which got both of them excited. If needed, maybe I could ask the kid to watch over Pony some day if the investigation got complicated. As I looked at the two I tried to think about how I could move forward in the case. Sadly, it was still a waiting game, but with the bag being real and the vigilante sharing information, I knew I had to keep going. I knew I was close to... something.

"I always wanted a puppy, but now I'll get a little sister." Jimmy's disappointed comment pulled me out of my thoughts again. "You think we can call her 'puppy', like you called your dog 'pony'?"

I knew then that I was eventually gonna get in trouble with this kid's parents. "Your sister is not gonna be your pet." I never had siblings, so it's not like I could give him any advice, much less empathise with his dilemma. So I just said the first thing that came to my mind. "I always envied people with little brothers or sisters." I didn't.

All that little fib accomplished was confuse the boy. "Really? Why?"

"Once they're old enough there are more games you can play with humans. You know?"

Jimmy still looked sceptical. "Like the game with the bag you and your friends are playing?"

"Kind of."

Was this a game to me? Solving riddles? After everything that happened you'd think I'd feel more ambiguous about what I do, but to be honest I still felt this familiar thrill when I was onto something big. I also felt it when I was approached with this case. It sounded simple enough, but there was something off about it. I felt it that day when I was finally holding that mysterious bag while somehow discussing pets and siblings with this kid. (Personally, I was always team dog, of course. A dog listens to orders and is loyal while people need to be convinced and can rarely be trusted.)

My phone then saved me from this awkward conversation and I threw the ball to make Jimmy resume his game (which he happily did) when I saw who was returning my call. "Detective Mahoney! Thank you for getting back to me."

"Hello Mrs Mars, I'm sorry for taking so long, but you have to understand that missing bags aren't that high on our priority list." He didn't sound like he was annoyed though. "I'd still like to talk to you about it, because there's no report of that incident where it was supposed to be lost."

"No report? But officer Stain told me-"

"Who?"

"Officer Stain?"

There was a brief silence on the line while Mahoney seemed to type something on a computer. "Okay... that is strange. I think we should talk about this in person."

"Yeah, sure. I can come-"

"No. Not at the station. I'll text you an address." 

There was no chance to sniff around his office then. But his reaction made me think that sniffing around Stain's office might be more productive... and potentially more dangerous as well. "Great. I'll be there."

Before he finished the call I heard Mahoney mumble something that sounded suspiciously like a curse. About 10 minutes later he texted me an address where I was supposed to meet him right after sunset. This gave me barely enough time to look Mahoney and Stain up online, so I called for Pony and said goodbye to Jimmy.

The two cops both came up in media articles highlighting their arrests, although Mahoney's career moved up a little faster. In the middle of checking if they had any connections to Daredevil cases I got a call back from Mac who was a little busy with family obligations, but promised to help me hack into that phone I found the next day. "Trust me, I'd rather get to this now, but you know how much work it was to keep the Mars Investigations page up and running. My mom complained that they didn't see me anymore, yaddayadda... you know how it is."

"I know. Tomorrow is fine." Sure, I was impatient. But I thought this wasn't urgent.

Also, Mac was right that dad and I kept her very busy, with those random attacks by a scumbag who believed in Penn's innocence. "By the way: I think we're just dealing with one guy - or girl - bothering us. I was really getting somewhere, but if I had skipped my aunts 50th to find out more they'd have killed me and you would have another murder to solve."

"At least I'd know where to look for the killer...."

"Oh yeah, you would. Seriously, cousin Christy is who I'd check first. I get creepy vibes from her. She's just too... proper."

"Noted. But try to survive. And remember: No feeding Christy after midnight. Or throwing her in the pool. Mars Investigations is over without you keeping our online presence clean."

The amount of spam we got from potential "clients" after the documentary came out was insane and when we didn't react to them a string of abuses, threats and fake negative reviews on several plattforms followed. It's frustrating what apparently just one person with a grudge and a computer is able to do. Or in Mac's case, it is kind of amazing, because she quickly got on top of things and we weren't forced to change our name to Pluto Investigations or whatever.

"The good news is that I'm really getting closer to identify our wannabe online-vigilante. While the ones working in the real world...-"

"Oh no. Not you, too..." Leo apparently informed everyone about my little run-in with Hell's Kitchen's guardian devil.

"Come on, spill! What's Daredevil like?"

That's the question... Closing down my laptop I started to get ready for my meeting with the detective who got promoted after catching another vigilante - a guy they called "The Punisher". That one almost made the man I met look tame because instead of criminals with broken bones he usually left corpses behind. "I'm pretty sure he's insane. But I guess this place does that to people and he gave me my first real clue today, so we might be a team now."

"Oooh.... Veronica Mars & the Devil of Hell's Kitchen solving crimes together. I already see the headlines. Our spammer is gonna like that."

"It's just one crime..."

"And it sounds like he has a short temper..."

"You think?"

"Well, if the media can be believed - and the police reports Keith looked at..." I should have known my dad already did his own research. "...then the guy isn't particularly interested in deescalation."

"He wasn't the one who made things escalate when I saw him." I don't know why I tried to defend him, but I think I just wanted to know him on my side.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it."

"Look, I think I know why everyone's concerned and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about the guy, but so far I didn't even attempt to find out who he is. My priority is helping my friends from law school." We weren't that close, obviously, but Mac didn't know that.

"You have actual lawyer friends? Ugh... I always thought you hated Columbia because we weren't there."

"For the record: You would like Foggy and Matt." Mac also wouldn't have accused one of them of faking his blindness.

"Okay, we'll talk tomorrow. Because there's cake now. And I don't know how long it will be there."

"Tomorrow then. And if you can, save a piece for dad as well."

"Aye Aye, Mars!"

Mac mostly follows my lead without protest, even if she sometimes does things like tricking me into attending a stupid high school reunion. She is one of my longest friends and forgave me for a lot of bullshit... But unlike Wallace she wouldn't let me walk all over her which is probably why we make such a good team.

Making sure I was in the right place a little early I was surprised to find that I was meeting the detective in a badly lit park far away from his precinct. It was quite obvious that whatever we were gonna talk about was completely unofficial. I recognised him from a photo when he approached me, although he looked less relaxed in person which might have to do with the circumstances and the shadow falling over his face. He still managed to greet me with a friendly smile. "You must be Veronica Mars."

"Detective Mahoney, thank you so much for your time. I'm sure you have a lot of work to do."

"Let's cut right to it: He gave you my name, didn't he?"

"Who?"

Mahoney rolled his eyes. "Daredevil."

It shouldn't have surprised me that this was his first guess, especially after he asked me to meet him where nobody was likely to see us together. So, this was the cop vigilantes trusted or at least one of them. I wasn't sure what that said about the guy. "You're right, he told me to talk to you."

"Yeah, I figured. I also sent him a message to come here and tell us what this is all about, but I'm not sure, he'll be able to join us. He hasn't been active the last couple of days."

"Makes sense, because the last time I saw him, he was shot." The concern in the cop's face made me clarify that comment. "He said he'd be fine..."

Mahoney shook his head with a sigh. It seemed like whoever was working with the vigilante did actually care about him. Even someone who was technically on the other side of the law. "Anyway, so what is this business with the bag all about?"

I brought the thing with me, but I wasn't sure if I should tell him about it yet. Maybe he was just here to destroy evidence or something. "I just know that Daredevil was supposed to have taken it from my client. He even broke her arm in the process-"

"Hardly." I jumped a little when I heard the deep voice from behind a tree next to me. A man with a hoody covering most of his face stood there with his arms crossed and I immediately knew who he was, even without his black outfit.

So did the detective. "You've got some nerve. I was worried you wouldn't show up. Care to explain?"

"That woman, probably her client", he gestured vaguely in my direction. "Took a video of a crime that day. I think."

"Holy shit, why didn't you show me?!" Mahoney had his hands on his hips, clearly annoyed.

"I don't know, something was off about it. There were two officers involved-"

"And, what, you didn't trust me to investigate them?"

"No! Listen, it looked like they were framed."

"How do you know that?", I asked when the detective stayed silent.

"I think the victim was wearing a bulletproof vest." Mahoney looked just as puzzled as me, so we waited for the vigilante to go on. "He wasn't shot at, though. One of the officers held the other back. But... but I think the guy was also drugged. He got really aggressive and felt cornered somehow. So he lashed out at the man who was actually trying to calm things down. That's when it got out of control and suddenly he was lying on the ground, bleeding from his head. I'm pretty sure it was an accident, but maybe that video will show us more, if we can... get a look at it..."

"And you thought, I could do that without using official channels", I realised.

"I heard you're resourceful and you knew about the bug at Nelson, Murdock & Page. Clearly, I underestimated you." Daredevil shrugged in his hoody and smiled. "Plus: I didn't want to involve anyone else. You will leave after this is over, so you won't suffer the consequences of my actions."

I was stunned by that for a second, because I knew painfully well what that meant and the way he said it made a cold chill crawl down my spine. Others - people that were important to me - suffered because of the things I did, too. And I also didn't like the thought of that happening to Foggy or Karen. "You want to protect the firm and keep them out of it."

"Usually, if I can help it, yeah..." The detective next to me also looked conflicted about that.

There was a logical solution to that. "You should just stay away from them."

"Trust me I've tried." He chuckled, but there was a bitter note in it.

The vigilante was leaning against the tree and it looked like he was also shivering a little bit. When I noticed that I decided to put my cards on the table. "I think I'll get into the phone tomorrow. You can come to the hotel if you want to take a look", I offered to both of them and then turned towards the Devil again. "I guess you know my window - which is creepy, by the way."

I saw a little smirk playing around his lips. "Sorry about that. But you can just tell me what you can see in it and show the video to Brett here."

The detective nodded and frowned. "So, let me get this straight: You followed the woman and took the bag from her and what happened to the officers?"

"When I came back they were gone and so was the victim. They must have driven off with the body. One of them also talked to Veronica after we first met."

Mahoney sighed. "Richard Stain. I'm not sure where he and his partner, Michael Johnson, were that night of the murder."

"Or accident", the vigilante reminded him.

"Or that." There was a tense silence. "Okay, I'll check if I can find any suspicious deaths from that night. I guess, officer Stain has been showing up frequently on your crime scenes since then?"

"Yeah...", the vigilante confirmed.

"Good thing you were laying low for a while." Which only happened, because he was fucking shot....

"Good thing, he has a nurse taking care of him", I pointed out.

Daredevil then tilted his head in that strange way I was quickly getting used to. "How do you know about her?"

"It's my job." I grinned at him.

"Speaking of nurses: Do you by any chance need help getting home?", Mahoney asked. "You look like shit."

"It's just a fever." The man swaying behind the tree waved the offer of. "I'm fine."

"Come on, Nelson will never give me another cigar for my mom if he finds out I'm was able to prevent your death and didn't bother."

"I thought Murdock was your contact in the firm?"

That made them both shut up and turn to me. The detective then said something that later came back to bite me: "Yeah, Murdock's his connection, but the man doesn't give a damn about this guy's health."

"What an asshole", I said and both of them started laughing as if it was the best joke all day. To be fair, it was a lousy day in Hell's Kitchen and any joke could have been the best one.

"Come on, give yourself a break", the cop insisted and slowly approached the Devil who was carefully retreating into the shadows. Mahoney turned back to me once more, only to make sure I wouldn't ruin his plan. "I'm sure, Veronica won't follow us and she'll keep in touch."

"Of course", I stepped back a little and only vaguely heard the vigilante agree before the detective took his arm over his shoulder and even apologised for pushing him to come.

I waited a couple of seconds after they were gone, still contemplating if I should keep my word, when I heard my ring tone. I didn't know the number, but I picked up anyway, half expecting another stupid call about some fake lottery win when I recognised the voice of the woman who hired me: "Did you find my stuff?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? What do you think? I hope you're intrigued, because I tried to come up with a case that isn't too clichéd, but also gives me the opportunity to explore my main characters a little bit. Any writing advice to keep them true to themselves is welcome. Especially with supporting characters like Mahoney. :)


	5. Mary or Jane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, obviously I have zero idea how a phone can be hacked, so correct me if this is way off or you know... just go with the flow...

"Mary? Is that you? I thought you forgot about me..." I tried to sound more chill than I felt after she got me involved in an attack on the Devil of Hell's Kitchen that easily could have gotten me killed, I'm pretty sure.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, there was a family emergency the last couple of days. I only got your messages today."

Clearly that was a lie, but I needed to hear what she wanted, so I didn't question it. This was my chance to find out more about her true agenda. "Sure, I know how family can be. Listen, I talked to Daredevil and he doesn't have your bag. Is there anything else you can tell me about that night when you lost it...?"

There was a pause. "He's lying! And I fucking thought that asshole would be on our side eventually... That he was just going to give the evidence to the press or something! I can't believe I was defending him..."

"What evidence, Mary? I can't help you if you're not honest with me!"

"Daredevil, the guy who everyone thinks is such a hero fighting for justice is protecting a murderer. A bloody cop." She sounded furious over the phone. "I filmed it and he took my phone! I even thought he was keeping it safe, but he must have gotten rid of it!"

"Are you sure?"

"What do you mean? I know what i saw... And it's not even the first time the cop-"

"I mean, what exactly did you see?"

Mary laughed bitterly. "You're in on this, aren't you? You're trying to stop the truth from coming out! Well, mark my words, Veronica Mars, we can make your life hell and that little smear campaign you and your dad are dealing with will be nothing against what could be coming now if you go and look in the wrong direction. I won't let Martin's death go in vain." 

"No, wait, I believe you and I just wanna-"

She ended the call before I could try to reason with her and I was left standing alone in that little park. Even in the light of the street lamps it was a too dark for my taste with a fresh threat still ringing in my ear, so I made sure I got home as quickly as possible. Looking back I probably should have taken her warning more seriously, but I was never really good at that. I pretty much shoved it into the back of my head as soon as I was back at the hotel.

Falling asleep that night was a little difficult, especially when I got a message from Karen asking me if I heard anything else. And I wasn't sure what to say. On the one hand there was Daredevil's request to keep the firm out of this investigation. On the other hand, I wasn't sure if I should really be putting too much trust in the guy's judgment. It's not like I didn't know there was something fishy about my client and her little outburst didn't make her any more trustworthy, but the vigilante was friends with a cop after all, he admitted that he held back the phone that could have helped solve the case sooner. So, why didn't he?

I didn't doubt that he saved people, that he was doing a good job, but did he always make the right call about who was guilty and who wasn't? If Karen Page got the video, maybe she would have given it to the Bulletin. She must still have good contacts there I thought.

The next day I woke up to my phone ringing and Mac's voice announcing that she's ready to do her thing. I told her to give me a couple of minutes, because I needed a coffee before getting myself into any more trouble by completely ignoring my client's warning.

In no time I set it all up, connected the phone to my laptop and allowed my friend to remotely use it and do her magic. So I watched the curser dance across the screen without a clue what she's even doing. When she asked what she was looking for I summed up the basics of my case and about the video. Then I let her work, while I fed my dog and scrolled through the messages on my phone thinking again about "Mary's" words the day before. 

She basically confirmed most of Daredevil's account and insisted that the cop on the video had done something like this before. Maybe he's been overly violent in other arrests? Could this have been an attempt to gather evidence against him, lay a trap because he was in fact guilty? A trap that had gone majorly wrong.... Was the officer who flirted with me capable of that? The fact that there was no report of that night clearly suggested that they had something to hide. But maybe soon we'll find out what it was.

"I think I've got it!", Mac said and I saw a video opening on my screen. "Damn, I'm good."

"You're the best," I agreed, while already concentrating on what I saw. Which was a guy walking towards a police car with his hands held up, asking if something was wrong. His tone was angry, though. But that may have to do with the fact that a gun was drawn on him. Then another cop stepped in front of the gun whispering something to his partner and it looked like the other one noticed the camera for a second. Slowly he lowered his weapon. The guy he was aiming at however then started to taunt him, saying that now he wouldn't dare to do anything, because someone was watching. The guy was also black.

"Doesn't look good for the cop," Mac commented.

"Well... Daredevil said the guy was on drugs and that he was wearing a bulletproof vest."

"What kind of difference does that make, if he's dead?"

Good question. "Maybe it does, if someone sacrificed him to make a point."

As we watched, there certainly was a moment when the victim practically snapped and started to attack the officer who tried to wrestle him down without hurting him. The other cop then aimed his gun again, but before he was able to shoot the Devil jumped into the frame and unarmed him.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to see their faces from the angle of the camera. There was also way too much movement until suddenly the cop landed a hit that made the allegedly drugged man fall down like a bag of sand hitting his own head on the ground. That's finally when I saw Rick Stain look straight into the camera and the panic on his face was undeniable.

"Doesn't look like it was intentional," remarked Mac after the video ended.

"But that may also be the case, because he obviously knew that he was being watched."

"Yeah, that much was clear." Mac started to type away again. "Let's see what else we can find."

"If you can get me anything that helps me identify Mary, we might also get to see what else they have on Stain..."

"On it."

Pony came to sit down next to me while I used my own phone to call Daredevil. He picked up with a tense "What have you got?", that sounded like he was ready to jump into action any second.

"Hey chill, I just wanted to let you know that we've got the video. But how did you know about the drugs and the vest, when the victim was gone after you returned? I can't really see it..."

"Um... you can't?", I heard him politely excuse himself - which was an absurd thing to hear from a vigilante and after he apparently changed the room and shot the door behind him he quietly said: "Look I don't know. The guy's behaviour was just... off...? Doesn't he have bloodshot eyes or something? He was just unusually aggressive. I think I saw that he was wearing something under his shirt. Oh and he was arguing with the girl who filmed the incident before the cops stepped in!"

"Why didn't you say this before? Did you hear what he said?"

"I... I couldn't have. I mean, I was on a building on the other side of the street when I came and as I watched, it looked like they had a fight..."

Obviously, he didn't "see" any of that, but I didn't know that. What I knew for certain was that he was lying to me for some reason. Because there was no way he could have seen a vest under that shirt. If it was even there. However I saw him get rid of the gun, so this didn't necessarily make him a bad guy. "Okay, I'll send the video to Mahoney. Let's hear what he has to say and if he can help us identify the victim."

After I ended the call I heard Mac chuckle. "I can't believe you just told a violent vigilante to chill..."

"You know, maybe he's really a Marshmallow, who enjoys cooking for his sick aunt when he isn't beating up criminals." Or maybe he has these violent urges and tries to unleash them on bad guys, so he doesn't hurt anyone else...

"Careful Veronica. You hear me? You don't have any superpowers and if you're wrong about him..."

"I know... Found anything else?"

"I might have." She pulled up a folder with pictures. "These were deleted, but I managed to restore them."

She opened a couple of shots of a dark haired woman with a leather jacket, jeans and boots who looked totally out of place in front of a building with lots of people in suits and business outfits. But what shocked me to the core was when I saw her face. She looked a lot like Gia Goodman. A former class mate that I've gotten killed not so long ago.

"Who... who is that?"

"Oh, I think that's Jessica Jones. Remember that viral video of her attacking a guy on a beach?"

My memory came up with nothing while I was staring at Gia's face. "No."

"Are you ever online for anything other than research? She's a hero if you ask me and not just because she's crazy strong. I think she's a victim of sexual abuse and a PI with an attitude who doesn't care what people say about her. Reminds me of someone I know..."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"She's a little bit like you, dumbass." 

I didn't see it. But all I could see was who she looked like and that was a girl I used to go to school with. A girl who found out that her dad was a pedophile because of me and who kind of hated me because of that. I guess it was only natural. Everyone likes to blame the messenger. A bitter truth that I've experienced a couple of times when I solved a case with a less desired outcome. And then it turned out that she got herself tangled up in a murder conspiracy which lead to me confronting her and her getting shot in front of my eyes. "I should contact this PI. Maybe she knows something." 

Mac in the meantime had stopped working on my computer, so I maximized the window of my video chat with her again and found her smirking at me. "She knows your vigilante, by the way. I read that they teamed up some time ago."

I rolled my eyes at the possessive pronoun, but ignored it. "Got anything else?"

"Oh yeah." My favorite hacker grinned. "This Mary girl doesn't seem to be very experienced with burner phones. She actually used a wifi connection at a prestigious law firm called Chao & Benowitz."

Considering what Karen had said about the woman's attitude towards lawyers that seemed to be a good clue where to look for her. "Sounds like a lead."

"And by the way: I'm looking into a forum of Penn supporters and I'll let you know if I see anything we should be worried about. But most of them are just harmless conspiracy theorists I think." 

"All right, thanks! We'll be in touch."

"Sure. Let me know when you've met Jones." She grinned and then she waved goodbye at me.

Considering that there were quite a few news articles on Jessica Jones it was surprisingly difficult to find the name Alias Investigations, but as soon as I saw it mentioned somewhere I had the phone number so I immediately dialled it. But instead of her a guy picked up the phone. He was very friendly and helpful and eventually told me that he'd ask Jones if she could help another PI in a case she seemed to be involved in. 

It took longer than I expected, but eventually someone came on the line and I heard a groggy voice asking me what I wanted. Apparently Jessica Jones wasn't a morning - or midday - person and to my relief she also didn't sound like Gia. "Thank you, for talking to me. Listen, I'm working with Daredevil at the moment and-"

"Oh, no. That asshole can ask himself if he wants something," was all I heard before the beep tone told me that she hang up on me. Rude. And that was the end of my first conversation with Jessica Jones. Apparently, her last collaboration with the Devil didn't end that well. I probably shouldn't have named him. But so far, everyone who was working with him showed some amount of concern for the vigilante, so I kind of expected his name to help me with Jones. Obviously I was wrong about that. 

And that made me reconsider some things. For example that I really shouldn't trust his judgement on the question whether the police officer used too much force or not. And then there was the vest and the drugs. I really didn't know how he could have known about these. It seemed like he was holding something back, so I figured that maybe I should ask Karen to come along to Chao & Benowitz and use the opportunity to ask her some questions. She was also the only other person who talked to Mary or Jane and I figured another set of eyes wouldn't hurt.

I also texted her not to mention to her colleagues where she's going, because Daredevil asked me to leave them out of this and Karen made very clear that she didn't approve of that at all. "You know men and their pride", she wrote. I liked her.

Before we met up however I decided to swing by Stain's office and probe some more there. Our conversation started out quite friendly and "Rick" welcomed me with a big grin. "Veronica Mars, and I thought you'd be gone by now. Glad to see you stayed back."

His overconfidence made me smile somehow. "I came back with a couple of questions, though... You and your partner: What exactly did you do that night the bag went missing and do you happen to know anything about a man dying around the same time?"

The effect on his face was immediate. I observed how all the flirtiness was quickly replaced with shock and then barely contained anger. He quickly moved around me to close the door of his office and when that made me move back and go for my taser he rolled his eyes and held up his arms in a defensive gesture. "I'm not planning on making my case any worse," he muttered and then stated: "You've seen the video."

"I have. And I'm not the only one..." Better to always point out that there are other witnesses of a crime.

"Daredevil. Are you gonna give it to the press...?"

"We probably should give it to the police, but we're not so sure it'll even be investigated."

"The guy isn't dead, okay?", he was now standing right in front of me. "I know that video stopped when the woman ran and he went after her. Quickly afterwards, the man stood up and we all went our way." He shrugged. "It was an accident. He attacked me, I shoved him and he fell. That was it."

"Why is there no report?"

That question took him by surprise. "We... we thought it wouldn't look good. Listen, these things happen all the time. Small mistakes. They get blown out of proportion."

I raised my eyebrows at that. "I don't think unarmed people dying during an arrest are small mistakes."

"I'm not talking about that... My record's clean! I tried to hold Michaels back, alright?"

He did. I saw that. "Okay, we'll see."

Stain shook his head and fixed me with a stare while I walked through his door. After dropping a bug in his pen holder obviously.

Half an hour later I met Karen in front of a huge building where the offices of Chao & Benowitz were. The ex-reporter looked like she belonged there with her ponytail, blue blouse and a skirt, making me wish that I'd made more of an effort to blend in. "So, let's see if we find that woman who bugged us," she said, right before marching into the entry hall.

We subtly took seats there to observe the people for a while. Everyone telling you that PI work isn't mostly about waiting around for someone to appear or something to happen is lying. I used the time I had with Karen, of course, to fill her in to what the vigilante and Mahoney told me, as well as what Mac and I saw in the video. She was quite attentive even while she was also observing the people who walked by. Karen asked a lot of questions. She did not however question Daredevil's observations about the supposed victim. Which is why I asked: "You don't think he could be biased in the case, because he's you know... white?"

Karen's eyebrows shot up and she shook her head vehemently. "No, no, no... Trust me, he isn't racist."

"I'm merely suggesting a bias here..." If anyone had told me back then that the guy literally didn't see skin colour I'm not sure what I would have made of that to be honest.

The other PI clearly seemed appalled by the idea. "No! Seriously, you need to trust him. Maybe there's something he can't tell you, because he has to protect his identity."

That was a good point. But trusting a guy without even once seeing his face was difficult for me.

We sat there in silence for a while until I suggested that we should try and look for a cantine where most of the employees would probably go at some point. We had to go up five storeys in the elevator for that and then took a seat from which both of us had a good view of who's coming and going.

I thought I saw a short haired woman once, but when she turned around, it was some guy with longer hair. After a while there were less and less people around and we figured that we had to come back some other day.

When we stood up however, this guy kind of stopped in his tracks and stared at us like a deer in the headlights. Mostly out of reflex I held up my phone and took a picture of him. Then he quickly turned around - it looked rather comical really - and when he realised that he was being followed he stumbled into a man who soon had his fancy suit covered in soup and started yelling at him. He quickly made a run for it and Karen and I hurried to catch him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the suggestions and support! You're the reason this story is developing into something that's really fun to write. :)


	6. Pro PI Advice: Don't Get Drunk When Your Case Just Got Interesting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And don't stop writing, when you're just getting somewhere good... I'm too eager to get to the next two chapters, so I'm just gonna post this now. :D

Karen and I chased the strange guy we spotted at Chao & Benowitz - solely because he apparently recognised us - across several floors and stairs of the building. Although we had both thankfully opted for flat shoes, he eventually managed to outrun us when we tried to avoid the security team.

Rushing into an elevator also wasn't the best idea we realised when the damn thing stopped and went back to the floor we came from. We both quickly fixed our appearance, I redid my hopefully professional ponytail and when the doors slit open we plastered surprised expressions on our faces. "Oh! Hi.... um, is this the 11th floor?" Karen smiled and nervously put a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"No. What are you doing here?"

"We were just thinking about hiring a lawyer for a defamation case," I lied confidently.

"Did you have an appointment?"

"No Sir. I didn't know we needed one. Other firms are certainly offering better service then." Raising my eyebrows I looked at Page and added: "Don't you think so?"

Karen made a show of contemplating that. "I guess that means we'll take our business elsewhere."

"We'll be accompanying you outside," one guy growled at me and they shoved both of us back into the elevator. I guess our performance wasn't very convincing. But they probably saw us on their security cameras before anyway. The way down was a little nerve wracking. I told myself that they probably just wanted us out of the building as fast as possible. Unless something very sinister was going on in this firm. So far however the only connection to my case was that the strange woman who hired me and took a video of a potential murder used the Wifi of this place.

When they pushed us out on the first floor I freed myself from a rough grip declaring that they'll hear from our lawyers if they didn't watch their hands. We were leaving anyway. Several other people in the reception area took notice of the situation in confusion and the security guard just crossed his arms. "Bring them and we'll ask you what the hell you were snooping around for. Maybe some loser law firm was trying to steal our clients." The smug grin he was fixing Karen with told me that he knew exactly who she was. 

The former reporter couldn't leave that without a comment though. He ridiculed her family at Nelson, Murdock & Page and I was aware that they were all very protective of each other: "At least our firm isn't punishing partners with terminal illnesses like you did with Jeri Hogarth."

A guy in a suit who was in a conversation with someone else then excused himself and stepped in front of Karen with a fake smile: "Hey, I don't know what you think you're doing here, Miss Page, but would you please refrain from spreading rumours? Don't look like that. Of course I know who you are. And Jeri Hogarth is hardly the victim you're making her out to be. She has used illegal methods which is why we pushed her out. But I guess breaking the law isn't so bad to you, since you always defended those dangerous vigilantes in your articles." What a condescending jerk, was my first thought, although I had no idea what he was talking about.

"How convenient. Hogarth has used those exact methods working for you and you can try to deny that you knew about it all you want." Everyone was listening now and some of them did not seem to like that information. An older, obviously loaded woman even chuckled while the guy in the suit looked very pissed. "Her methods only became a problem when she got ill." And since the asshole didn't dare to challenge Karen Page there any further she quickly walked out of the building and I was right behind her grinning from ear to ear.

As soon as we stepped onto the street I started laughing. "You really showed them. I don't know exactly what, but you did."

"I can tell you about it over a drink?" Karen put on a shy smile that made the badass appearance she had only seconds ago all the more impressive. 

I couldn't say no to her offer, so she finally dragged me to Josie's where Foggy joined us about half an hour later as well. And I also had to tell Brett Mahoney to come there with his news in the case. He did not sound thrilled about the idea which made Foggy go on and on about them being frenemies, since his firm tended to defend the kind of people Mahoney arrested. But he was also the police officer who told the lawyers about their very first client who happened to be none other than Karen Page.

To be honest I was a little disappointed to hear that Murdock wouldn't make it, because he was apparently working on something important. It was just strange that I was back in New York, hanging out with his friends who talked about him all the time and I just never met him again. And this just became weirder to me every day. I didn't expect him to avoid me more than he did at Columbia and it was starting to irritate me.

I know what you're thinking. Why didn't I put two and two together yet and realise that of course I have already talked to Matt Murdock a couple of times. But you know what? It might have been obvious looking back, but I'm gonna view this as progress that I wasn't being more suspicious of the friends I was making. The people I bond with always tended to have issues and sometimes it seems like I accused every one of them of some crime or offence at some point. Sometimes we got stronger together through it, other times it tainted our relationship forever.

That evening though I had no time to think about it, because Foggy and Karen were awesome company and also I did drink quite a bit. So, just so you know: a lot of things happened that night that should have made me think, but I was still pretty much clueless. Even when Brett asked about Nelson's second half jokingly as he came into the bar and he accepted easily that the lawyer was busy, almost as if he knew what the guy was really up to. Which obviously, he did.

Then he told me what he found out about our case. "I gave our... friend a couple of names of people who have accused Stain and his partner Michaels of using too much force. He said he's just gonna talk to them or to their families if they're in jail."

For a detective he was surprisingly casual about sending a vigilante after civilians. "You didn't want to do this yourself?"

"It's not like I can stop him. The man has a bit of a one track mind." He shrugged. "And if I hadn't given him this much he'd have tried to talk to the men who are in custody since you two got attacked by them."

"He was gonna go in there.... with the mask and all?"

"Don't ask me. I really don't want to know." And the sigh he released after that stressed the sentiment. "Anyway, I looked through drug related deaths and they found a junkie who appears to match the guy in the video two days after the incident. Time of death seems to fit. I'm gonna talk to someone who knew him tomorrow."

"That's great! Can I come with you?"

"It might help actually." The detective gave me a shrug and a smile.

I then remembered to show him the blurry image of the guy we chased at the law firm. "Did Chao & Benowitz get mentioned anywhere? Or did this guy maybe come up somewhere? I think he has a connection to my client."

He took my phone in his hands to take a better look and then slowly shook his head. "No. Not yet, at least, but I can check out who represented the victims of the cops."

"Enough serious talk, you two!", Foggy cut in, putting a third beer in front of me and a first one in front of Brett. "Veronica has been working nonstop since she came to Hell's Kitchen. We're the only people she knows here, so we should show her how we have fun!" It's not like I didn't know others there, but not many I felt like contacting...

"You're not on duty, are you?" Karen giggled and gave Brett an apologetic glance, but he shook his head.

The detective still seemed a little reserved. "You want Veronica to enjoy her stay and this is the place you bring her to?"

"Hey, it's the company that counts! And we love it here," Foggy said while giving the eye rolling bartender a wink. "Marci will also be joining us in a couple of minutes. What do you say, Brett?"

The guy took in the eager faces and when I also asked him to stay around for a bit he actually relented. "Fine. But next time I pick the place." We cheered and went on to have a good time, although Brett did excuse himself after two beers.

On my way home I was pretty wasted I have to admit. The others insisted that I should take a cab, but I somehow made the driver go too far and decided to get off anyway. Probably not a smart idea, walking around Hell's Kitchen like that alone, but you can't be clever around the clock and I also had a surprisingly fun evening, so I wasn't really concerned. 

Well, until Daredevil's sudden appearance gave me a bit of a heart attack. He stepped right in front of me from an alley and immediately held up his hands. "I come in peace." He had the nerve to smirk while saying that, probably because I instinctively went for my taser. Good to know those reflexes were still working.

"You know that's rude, right? You're scary.... a scary dude..." I can't imagine what it would have been like to meet him in that Devil outfit he used to wear. The black number seemed a little less creepy and it still gave me chills in the beginning.

"Hey, it seems like you were prepared for any attacker..." I rolled my eyes, because I know when someone's mocking me. "I was on my way to your place when I saw you and figured that maybe you'd prefer some company..." 

I did, not that my brain was really able to take that thought into consideration before opening my mouth. "I can look after myssself." 

"Of course you can." 

I nodded with my chin up in defiance, but didn't protest when he kept walking next to me. Drunk me is more wise than she appears, you see. If you can call trusting someone who was still technically a stranger to me wise.

In that state I somehow managed to share the information Brett gave me on our little walk and it must have been accurate enough to corroborate whatever Daredevil was able to dig up. Or he was just humouring me and already knew about the alleged junkie death as well. He thought that this Mary Richards or Jane Michaels woman must have some kind of personal motivation and that's how we could be able to find her. Daredevil was looking into accusations against the cops, but he didn't find anyone who wanted to talk about it yet.

"Stain said he has a clean record," I remembered vaguely.

"He does, because nothing stuck. This doesn't have to mean anything, though. Criminals who get arrested complain against cops all the time..."

Yeah, I knew that from my dad's work as a sheriff. Still... "How often do accusations have actual consequences, though?"

"Not often enough," I heard the vigilante angrily agree to my thoughts next to me. But he somehow insisted that Stain didn't intentionally kill this guy. I decided not to point that out.

Suddenly he grabbed my wrist which made me practically jump out of my own skin. "You had a visitor..."

And sure enough, when I looked up the building to where my hotel room was I saw the open window that I closed before I left. "Stay behind," I heard him order when he was already on his way up. Not like I even had a chance to follow him that quickly anyway with the amount of alcohol in my system. Slowly I struggled to climb up the emergency staircase, trying to come to terms with the fact that someone apparently broke into the place where I was sleeping. I always hated that feeling.

By the time I reached the right floor he had apparently already searched the entire place and was hunched over my dog. My heart sank immediately. "Pony!" I hurried to the vigilante's side and watched as he carefully touched the poor animal that didn't dare to move, but was clearly hyperventilating. His hand moved over the white fur and I straightened his floppy brown ears.

"Whoever searched this place must have hit him with something." As if hurt by the reminder Pony then started to whimper. "It'll be fine, but maybe you should bring him to a vet tomorrow to make sure?"

I nodded while Daredevil stood up and tilted his head, just the way Pony would have done while listening for some sound, I realised. Weird. He then started moving around. "They were probably looking for the bag..."

"For the phone, you mean. Um... I had it with meee. Although..." I tried to concentrate. "If they took the bag they know I have the video."

"Where'd you keep it?"

"The... the ventlation shafft."

I heard some rumbling while I tried to calm Pony down and he seemed to come to life a bit in my presence.

Whoever broke in wasn't there anymore, I told myself. Otherwise Daredevil would have found the intruder.

"Yeah... the bag is gone."

Bringing the dog some water I went through the case in my head again and discussed what this meant with the strange guy standing in my bedroom. We agreed that this was a sign that we were onto something. Something that may be a little bigger than I expected. I was starting to feel a little sick then and it was just really hard to focus.

"Look, if you're afraid, I can bring you somewhere safe."

"No, I think I'll just movetoanotherhotel," I managed to say. "If you know how to find people you also know how to disappear. Would be cool, though, if someone could take Pony..." The dog made another worrying sound, but also started to drink out of the bowl I put in front of him which I saw as a good sign.

"We'll ask someone at Nelson, Murdock and Page."

"Thank you." I'm pretty sure he knew how relieved I was to hear that.

Then I saw Daredevil get eerily still for a second and quickly rush back out the window. I patted the dog before following him outside and I found him already crouching on the windowsill facing the boy in the next window who looked between the masked stranger and me with big eyes. Young Jimmy was clearly in awe. "Are you Daredevil?" He was standing inside the hotel room grabbing the window frame in a mix of fear and excitement. He was whispering, so he wouldn't wake his parents who occupied a separate room next to him.

"Yes. Did you see anyone break into my friend's room?"

Jimmy answered with a quick nod.

"Can you describe that person to us...?"

"It was three men..." He then made a more doubtful face. "I'm sorry, I only saw them when they left. I heard Pony bark and then whine and I wanted to help him. I really did!"

"You didn't do anythin' wrong," I assured the distressed little boy. I was just glad he didn't get hurt himself.

The boy then just started sobbing while looking in my direction. "But Pony..." 

That's when I saw that his cheek was a little red and my companion brushed with his gloved fingers against the kid's chin, softly nudging him to look his way again. A gesture that really should freak Jimmy out, but he clearly trusted this man. This "hero" in a scary black costume. Hell's Kitchen must be a crazy place to grow up in if this was the kind of guy kids learned to trust.

"Did they hurt you?", Daredevil asked and I could tell that he was trying not to sound angry, in an effort not to scare the boy any more. But Jimmy just shook his head.

"Did your parents hit you?" That question the boy didn't answer. He just looked down.

The vigilante took a shaking breath. "Let me in so I can talk to them."

Jimmy's eyes widened and he winced. "No, please. It was just this one time..."

"Okay, I just... want to make sure you're safe. Don't worry."

"I'm a big boy." He sounded a little insulted that the grown up man in costume might assume otherwise.

"You are. It was good of you to worry about your neighbour's dog. But I just need to know what happened to make sure it won't happen again."

Jimmy then slowly opened the window and a part of me was shocked by how fucking easy it was to get inside this family's hotel room for someone who looked like the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and another part of me was fucking concerned over little Jimmy getting hit at home by the people who were supposed to take care of him...

To be honest it did bring up some horrible memories. Thinking of the way Logan was treated by his own father I hoped Daredevil knew how to take care of that kind of thing in a way that wouldn't traumatise the kid further.

So, I tried to listen closely which was pretty easy, since the parents were not happy with waking up to a criminal lecturing them about the way they were bringing up their child. But things calmed down quickly when it became rather clear that the known vigilante standing in their bedroom on their vacation - which turned out to be a visit to relatives and that explained the cheap hotel in this area - was actually not a danger and just trying to help.

He believed that they were just in over their heads when they heard the scary noise next door. Jimmy wanted to go and save Pony and his mother felt she had to hit him to make him stay put and listen. She apparently felt horrible about the incident and couldn't stop crying about it. Once she actually admitted to what she had done, their conversation became too quiet for me to follow. So, a little relieved I went back to my dog and also poured myself a much needed glass of water.

It took a couple of minutes until the Devil climbed back through my window, while I was slumped down next to Pony, not much closer to getting sober. "Didn't sound like you had to beat anyone up," I commented.

"His mother just feared that he'd get himself killed. I tried to explain to Jimmy that he should just get help in a situation like that and that his parents should have called the police."

I muttered that maybe calling the police isn't always such great help in this area, thinking of the case we were working on, but the Devil either didn't have as good ears as I was suspecting or he just didn't want to say anything.

But he can't refer everyone to Mahoney, the one cop he definitely trusted. Plus: he thought it was necessary to run around his city with a mask every night that he could... So, what does that say about how much he believes in the system?

And what did his reaction to the boy's red cheek say about him? "Hey, um... cann I ask you somthin...?" Why did my voice still have to sound that slurry?

"Go ahead," he said in a way that told me he'll decide after he hears the question if he wants to grace it with an answer. He was leaning against the wall opposite me with a relaxed pose. His jaw however gave the tension away.

"When did you start this?" I vaguely gestured towards him, not that that would make it clearer. "Nooo... I mean... why? Why'd you start doing this?" 

He was reluctant, clearly. Shifting his weight from one foot to another. "I... it was a girl. I knew her father was hurting her. So... I tried to help."

"Did it? Help?"

"Eventually... yeah, I think so. But... it wasn't easy."

When is it ever easy? The thought of someone out there trying to make a difference did however warm my cold cynical heart. And I remember what it did to him as well, how weak he looked the last time I saw him. Although he at least seemed fine again I was glad to observe.

"Logan was hit by his father. With a belt. It really messed him up." I don't know what made me share this. It just kind of slipped out and the memory made me close my eyes and lean my head back against the wall.

The vigilante just stood there and then I heard him quietly sit down on the ground next to me. "I'm sorry. I know he died..."

It's not like I was surprised that he knew about my dead husband. Anyone who did the basic research about me would stumble across that story pretty quickly. It had all the ingredients for a rating hit after all: A murder mystery, a riddle, a wedding and a fucking bomb ending our honeymoon before they could start. That vigilante saying it out loud, sitting next to me, while I was cradling... our dog, it was just a bit much. I shot up immediately, wiped a tear from my cheek and just stood there gathering my thoughts.

When I turned back to face him, he was still on the ground, arms held around his knees and head tilted. He was so quiet that it felt like he was listening intendly, trying not to spook me which was freaking me out. I needed to change the topic. "What about you? I mean, what was your dad like?"

I don't know why I asked, why I didn't just talk about the case. A part of me thought he wouldn't answer anyway, but I told myself that if I seriously had to trust this stranger I needed to know his motivation and somehow seeing him with that boy I got this idea... "My dad wasn't like that." The heavy silence told me that this was sacred information he wasn't just giving everyone. "But he was killed when I was young."

That right there should have reminded me of someone, but again... I was drunk. I did recall the conversation vaguely the next day, but this little detail somehow didn't really register and I only remembered it when I had some more pieces of the puzzle.

What it did in that moment though was level the playing field in a way. I was just reminded that he knew a lot about me and he was able to find out more easily, while I knew nothing about him - beyond his identity as Daredevil and his allies.

Telling me about his dad though exposed him and made him vulnerable in a way that was much more dangerous to him than all the information he could gather about my past could ever be to me. Without knowing how easily it would be for me to guess his identity eventually I knew what a big deal this was. And even in my drunken state I understood he wasn't lying.

So I sat back down next to him, petting Pony and we were silent for a while. We both knew further questions were off limits in a way. For both of us.

"You're sure you want to sleep here tonight? You feel safe?" His question was barely more than a whisper.

"Not sure I care anymore," I replied and after a couple of minutes I must have fallen asleep there on the floor with my head falling against his shoulder.


	7. The Day Matt Murdock Died

When I woke up the next day I had a bad headache and needed a second to remember where I was and what happened the night before. Which also had to do with the fact that most things were back where they belonged and it didn't look so much like someone broke into my hotel room. The only clue that something was off was that one pillowcase looked like it was inside out.

The Devil must have tidied up my room and that realisation made me almost laugh out loud. When I tried to get up I got a little dizzy and then I remembered that I actually didn't go to bed, not that I could recall. I quickly lifted the sheets to check what I was wearing and was relieved to see my clothes from the night before, minus the shoes.

Maybe I should just have taken his offer to bring me somewhere safe, but trust just doesn't come easily to someone like me and there were enough things that made me a little cautious around him when I was not too drunk to be sensible. I still didn't know who he was, he was absolutely involved in my case in some way and Jessica Jones also didn't seem to have a good experience working with him.

But first things first: I needed to move to a new hotel and let someone take a look at Pony. And I had a message from Foggy on my phone saying that he'd be able to take the dog and that I could drop him by his place when he was on his lunch break. That did sound like a good idea and this way I was also able to get a new place where they don't allow pets. Which was another thing that should have made it more difficult for those assholes to find me again. 

Pony was okay, but he seemed a little more jumpy than usual when I got him to a vet. I didn't know what those intruders hit him with, but I felt like getting revenge whenever I found out who was responsible for this. 

I had just checked into a new hotel, leaving Pony at the reception with the promise that I'd drop him off somewhere else later, when I got a call without an ID. I picked up and I heard my client's voice: "Veronica, I think I'm gonna to need your help after all."

She sounded nervous. "Mary? Where are you?" I didn't want to talk about anything regarding this case over the phone.

"I've sent you some files and you need to take a look at them... My name's Ally by the way."

"Why now?"

But the line was dead. I was eager to check my mails until about five minutes later, she texted me: "Don't trust the lawyers!" That cryptic text was quickly followed by "I'll explain in time" and "Nelson & Murdock defended Stain once before".

It's not like I trusted her, neither about her supposed name nor about Stain. And it's not even like defending Stain would have been such a bad thing, but not telling me about it when the name came up, that would be strange. I tried to remember if I talked to Foggy about the cops and said the name, but I wasn't sure about it. And it's not like I ever spoke to Murdock. Daredevil was the one who told me what the other lawyer thought about the murder.

I decided that I'd ask Foggy about Stain when I was dropping Pony off, but then I saw an email by some Ally Ferguson. The subject line was missing, but there was an attachment. Is this why she gave me her name? Or just another fake one? I hovered over it several seconds and then decided that I probably shouldn't open it without Mac. I sent the hacker a message about it immediately.

The curiosity was still killing me, but what if they were somehow trying to get access to my files? Or if someone was trying to delete them? Someone just searched my hotel room after all. Maybe they really wanted that video for some reason. And I did have a copy of it on my laptop. Luckily they didn't find it when they searched my things. Probably just grabbed the bag they were looking for and didn't even check if the burner was inside.

Something else I could use was that bug that I had placed in Stain's office. Listening in I heard that he was typing something over my earphones. So luckily he was working in the office that day. Then I took the burner that Mac had hacked into and I sent the cryptic message of my own to his number, intending to listen to his reaction: "I think you should contact your lawyer" 

I heard Stain grab his phone and then curse in annoyance. His reply was: "Fuck off, I'm not paying! The video will be out anyway."

He then started typing again, but I kept listening. About 20 minutes later he must have finished his report, but instead of calling Nelson, Murdock & Page, he called his partner Michaels saying that they needed to talk. He didn't mention a place though, so I had no chance to go and watch them and I was too far away to follow anyone. I should have done this when I was close by, but I was too impatient. The break-in still had me a little on edge, especially with Pony waiting at the reception. But it was time to take him to an interrogation anyway.

Brett Mahoney and I were gonna meet the dead man's flatmate to ask him about Martin. Anything that would explain whatever he was involved in would help. According to Daredevil, he was on drugs and he was also wearing a bulletproof vest, but he wasn't found with one. He also wasn't shot. If there were drugs in the apartment I knew Pony could find them. So I asked the detective if he could bring a small amount of the substances that were found in Martin's system. There were traces of spice as well as heroin in his blood. Mahoney wasn't happy about it, but he said he could try to do it.

On my way to the place I got a message from Mac saying that she'll look into that email I got from my client and informing me that someone new recently registered at the conspiracy forum she was observing. That person was looking for people in New York... Mary or "Ally" had said that those smear campaigns they did were nothing against what this group I was investigating would be able to pull if I kept bugging them. At least that meant they were aware of that forum... Unfortunately, warnings like that just make me curious. I thought maybe they were just giving them tips on how they'd be able to paint Mars Investigations in a bad light. At least that was the worst I could come up with back then.

I was obviously still kind of underestimating what that group was capable of.

Brett was already waiting for me in front of the building. "Hello Mrs. Mars..."

"Please, just... Veronica." Hearing people say Mrs. Mars still caught me off guard sometimes.

"As you wish." He sighed. "I'm not here officially anyway, so Brett will do." Then he pointed at the dog. "Is this why you pushed me to bring this shit?" He held up two little plastic bags with drugs.

"Yeah... I just wanted to see if he consumed this stuff regularly. Give them to me." He hesitated, but then dropped the bags in my hand. "Don't worry, you can put it back quickly and nobody will miss it."

"You're so gonna get me in trouble." I let Pomy sniff at the drugs, so he would look for something like this at the apartment. Brett then rang the bell.

After a couple of seconds a voice came through the speaker. "Who's there?"

"Hello, I'm a detective working on Martin Irving's case. You think you can answer some questions for us?"

There was a pause. "Yeah... um, yes sure."

He then pushed the button and the door opened. Martin was living in a flat with a guy called Adam on the fifth floor. The building didn't look like it was taken care of that well, but it also appeared nothing like a place where you'd expect a junkie to live. We took the elevator and looked for the right door. It opened before we even knocked.

"Hi! Come on in!" Martin's flatmate Adam almost seemed relieved. He barely registered the badge Brett showed him or our names when we introduced ourselves. "I was wondering if someone was even gonna ask about him. Martin's sister informed me when they found him dead somewhere. I still can't believe it." He shook his head and crossed his arms. 

Brett looked at me then and he seemed pissed that he was the first cop to even bother to look into this. Unofficially. While he started to ask some questions I decided to look around with Pony.

"Were you surprised when you heard that Martin had taken drugs?"

As eager as Adam was before to talk about his flatmate, this question already made him a little nervous. "Yeah... he's not some addict. He wasn't. I mean, I don't think that killed him, right? He had a head wound his sister said."

"You don't have to be worried. Nothing you share with us in this investigation will get you in trouble," Brett tried to reassure him. "I promise."

Adam looked at me and I tried to give him a smile as well. Then he sighed and turned back towards the detective with a slow nod.

"Alright... I've seen him smoke weed a few times... But the last time was months ago! I even thought he'd quit it." 

Pony was sniffing around in what Adam indicated was Martin's room. The two shared a kitchen, so I assumed that they must have known each other quite well and the fact that he let us look around like this told me that he at least honestly didn't expect us to find anything incriminating.

"Are you sure it was weed and not spice? Did he ever seem aggressive to you?" 

"What? No, man! He was... like the most relaxed guy I know. The last couple of weeks he was a little more tense maybe. Saw him with this white girl a couple of times and they argued outside about something once. But I really don't think he used spice."

"Do you know what this fight was about?"

In Martin's room I saw a picture of him with Adam and some others having a good time. He certainly didn't look like someone who'd snap easily. Then again with drugs involved it's hard to say. I picked the frame up and kept listening.

Apparently there were some issues with a cop, but he couldn't remember if it was Stain or Michaels. Adam also said that Martin was earning more the last couple of months, but he didn't seem to know what company he was working for exactly. Since he had stopped smoking pot and started wearing a suit like his co-workers Adam however assumed that it was good work. He also mentioned once that his friend was somehow trying to make a difference there.

When Brett asked if Martin owned a bulletproof vest he seemed confused. "Why would he need that...?"

"Do you think he was involved with something shady? Like blackmail for instance?"

At that point Adam had his hands on his hips. "Martin was the victim! Damn it, I thought you would actually take this seriously."

"I am taking this very seriously," Brett insisted. "I'm just trying to figure out what happened to him."

Since Pony didn't find anything I decided it was time for me to take over. "Adam, we think that Martin was drugged. There are none of the substances that he was found with in his room. But maybe someone injected it after he was dead already. Maybe it was someone he was working with. So, it might be important to know more about this new workplace of his. Could you please tell us who are the people in this picture?" I pointed at a girl next to Adam. "Is that the girl he was fighting with?"

"That's my ex Phoebe." He frowned. "That picture was taken last year actually at his sister's birthday." 

Now Brett was the one who started to look around a little, while I gave Pony a little treat for sniffing around.

"Did the girl he was fighting with have short dark hair? And did she call herself Mary or Jane?" 

"No, her hair went over the shoulder at least and it was blond. And I think her name was Andy or something..."

"Could it be Ally as well?"

He looked like he was thinking for a moment. "Maybe."

Immediately I took out my phone and showed him a picture of the guy I chased at Chao & Benowitz. "Is this one of Martin's co-workers?"

"I think I really saw that guy with him once. Where does he work?"

"At a law firm," I told him. "But Martin wasn't a lawyer, right?"

"No, he was more like an accountant or something. But they need those at law firms, too, right?"

"Yeah, the big ones do," Brett said after reemerging from his little round of the apartment. "I think, that's all for now. Thank you Adam, this was very helpful. Please call if you remember anything else." He then offered his card with a number.

Back outside I asked him: "So, what do you think?"

"I think you're right that Martin was drugged somehow. But I'm not sure why these cops would do that if his death was an accident. You think he was fighting with your client?"

"She said that she didn't want Martin's death to go in vain and Daredevil saw her argue with him as well before the cops turned up. Maybe they were planning to provoke the cop and get him on tape because of something that happened before." That would explain the vest. Maybe the blackmail was a one time thing.

"But now that Martin's dead, who was sending these goons to search your room? And if they just want the video to have evidence against the cops, why don't they just ask you for it?"

Okay, yeah, there was probably more to it. "Well, I may have pretended that I didn't have it and I said I wanted to investigate them, so she threatened me to back off..."

Brett looked at me in concern. "Shit, I knew you were insane when I realised you were working with Daredevil. You do remember that these people sent crooks after the Devil of Hell's Kitchen?! The guy who beats criminals to pulp every night...?"

I blinked and started to grin. "But Sergeant Mahoney, you're here to protect me, aren't you?"

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, I'll drop you and your dog home."

"No need. I've got a car and I'm about to bring Pony to Nelson's place anyway. He got attacked last night and-"

"Someone attacked Foggy?!"

"No, no. My dog. He was there when they broke in. I'm not taking chances with him." Pony looked up at me, wagging his little tail. 

"Of course. Well, take care." Then he thought for a second. "I've got a list of incidents that looked suspicious, but I'm thinking that your client might have to do with something that didn't necessarily make it into the records. And maybe she's not a relative of the victim either, but a friend."

"Maybe some clever lawyers made a deal..." I remembered Karen mentioning her distaste for lawyers when she bugged their firm. "She actually contacted me again today. Said her real name was Ally and that Nelson & Murdock represented Stain." 

He frowned at that. "I don't remember these guys defending a cop."

"Well, let's see..."

Foggy Nelson lived in a nicer part of Hell's Kitchen with his girlfriend Marci, but she wasn't around when I dropped by. A part me felt really bad that I was obviously using this opportunity to gather information in his home, while the guy was so nice to help out. 

Nelson greeted Pony like an old friend, although the dog still seemed nervous around the stranger. "Hey buddy! We two are gonna have a good time, right?" 

I handed over a bag with toys and food. Plus Pony's favorite blanket that I usually keep in the car. "As soon as you feed him he's gonna love you," I promised. "I'll come by as much as I can to go for a walk with him and see if he needs anything. Thank you so much for doing this, Foggy ..."

"Oh, come on. I feel like we're in this together now anyway," he said with a grin, not really making this easier.

"The good thing is that he'll watch over you at night, and start making a lot of noise if someone tries to break in."

"Cool, our vigilante buddy will like to hear that." He laughed. Then he offered Pony one of the snacks I brought and after barking a couple of times in irritation he took it and immediately started waving his tail and begging for more. "See? We're friends already."

I smiled as the two of them were getting to know each other and eventually dared to ask about that little lead in my case that made me nervous: "By the way: Do you remember defending a guy called Richard Stain?"

My casual tone however didn't help, because he knew the name of course. "You mean the cop who killed someone in that video."

"It might have been an accident, but... yeah, him."

"Well, I don't remember something like this. Maybe Matt did. I can ask him."

"No, I can do that myself. Don't worry about it." I wanted to see his reaction when I asked.

"Why don't you just come back to the office with me? I'm sure whatever this is about can be explained easily, Veronica." There was no hint of him being upset that I was even asking this which made me feel even more guilty for following this lead. But I was more suspicious of Murdock than of him anyway. And it didn't help that the guy was avoiding me.

"You're probably right. I just need to make sure..."

"Hey, I don't blame you. I think it's time you and Matt had a talk anyway," he said and chuckled.

Before we left Pony was whimpering again and I crouched in front of him to say goodbye, make him feel more at ease there. When we were closing the door he still looked at me like he did when we adopted him as a puppy. I felt a little bad leaving him there like this and told myself that he'd get used to it quickly.

When we arrived at the law firm, Foggy first went into Murdock's office to talk to him and he looked a little less sure about this after he came out. "Matt's all yours. He's a bit stressed though, so don't take it personally if he isn't too friendly. Alright?"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Still the same, then."

"Just.... don't kill each other, okay? Whatever happens." He laughed and gave me a little pat on the shoulder.

Before I could ask what that was even supposed to mean, Foggy was gone and there was just one last step to make. When I went into Murdock's office, he already stood in front of his desk, obviously as uncomfortable with me being there as I was. "Matt Murdock.... long time no see..."

However, he actually surprised me with a chuckle and I already regretted my choice of words. "I've never had the pleasure to see you, Veronica Mars."

"Look, I'm sorry for ever accusing you back in college.... I..."

"That... that's all in the past," he said, crossing his arms. "Foggy said you're here because you think that I defended Richard Stain."

Okay, if he had forgiven me about the past, he certainly was a little offended about my more recent misstep. "I just wanted to make sure. If you did you could help me find out who was accusing him. Maybe this way-"

"I can't help with that because I didn't defend him, Veronica. Cops don't need lawyers who work pro bono."

He had a point and I felt awful for even asking. Something about this guy just got under my skin. Always had. "So, okay, nice to see you again I guess." It wasn't nice. Not at all. I felt like an idiot and he was standing there all smug. With his red tinted glasses and a better haircut he looked even more full of himself.

"Yeah, thank you Veronica. I mean it. I know you're working with Brett and Daredevil on this. Just: Be careful, okay?" He smiled and I wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Right. Um... you, too. Okay, bye..."

I opened the door and then without really thinking I closed it again, still standing inside the blind man's office with confusing questions on my mind. Pretending that I had left I stayed as silent as possible. When I turned around I saw that he was tilting his head with a frown. Eventually, he walked back around his desk as I watched and then went back to work. When I was sure that he was listening to a statement of a witness, I took out my phone and put it on silent mode.

Remember when I said that real PI work is a lot of waiting around? Yeah, like this. Waiting and sneaking around like an asshole. I didn't even know what I was looking for, but I didn't trust Matt Murdock and I had to find out why. So, I waited for him to get a coffee or go to the bathroom. But he kept typing and reading like the workoholic that he always has been and I just sat there on the floor opposite him, starting to feel like an idiot.

When Foggy opened the door to say goodbye I stayed as close to the wall as I could, so he hopefully wouldn't see me. "Hey, buddy, are you joining Karen and me at Josie's?"

"I think I'll pass today. Too much work."

"Right..." He almost closed the door, but then he opened it again. "Hey, and did you tell her?"

That got my attention. "No. Not yet. She's just... I'm not sure what she'll do."

"She will find out, you know?"

"I know." And it felt like we were both kind of holding our breath, wondering if Foggy was gonna say what I would apparently find out eventually. But he didn't. He left and I had to keep sitting there, until Murdock finally went for the fucking bathroom. 

As quickly as I could I went to check out his computer and typed the name Stain in his email program, but it came back empty. Then I looked at what he was working on and took out my phone to take pictures when I saw a message there from an unknown number. It said: "Pick up or die."

I looked around and saw that the curtains were open. Someone was watching. When I looked back at my phone display I saw that someone was calling. Not eager to test this anonymous psycho I answered the call.

"Who's this?"

"Veronica Mars..." The voice was distorted. "How very thoughtful of you to come to my city."

"I don't know what you want-"

"Shut up! Or he'll hear you and then I'll have to kill both of you."

I heard the toilet flush in the quiet office and started to panic a little. "I've had a ticking present delivered to your friends earlier today and I can make it explode any second, but I don't want to kill you just yet." A feeling of sheer dread consumed me as I already guessed what was going to come next.

"You can leave the building, but you're gonna stay on the fucking phone the entire time. If you hang up on me you're both dead, if you say anything to Murdock, you're both dead, if you stay where you are, you're both dead. Leave and you live. Once you're outside I'll tell you what you can do to stop me from killing the people who really matter in your life."

There was no time to think, no time to come up with a genius plan, barely time to breathe. If I wanted to live, all I had to do was tiptoe out of Matt's office and run down the stairs, out of this building, away from another bomb that was going to blow up another part of my life. The one that was supposed to be stable and safe and... ordinary.

"I can hear you.... you only have 5 minutes to leave the building." I started to move, but then Murdock walked back into the office and I couldn't bring myself to walk away. I just stood there and stared at him one last time. And finally I regretted not reconnecting with him before I had to sacrifice his life to safe my own. Maybe it was just a bluff, I tried to tell myself in an effort to make my feet move.

Suddenly Murdock stopped typing, licked his lips and tilted his head in a familiar way, but I had no time to think. "Is someone there?", he asked and I quietly prayed that I was right about him all those years ago, that he in fact wasn't blind and was just pretending he couldn't see my treacherous figure standing there refusing to warn him. All I was able to do was form the word bomb with my lips, with the hair on my neck standing up, snippets from the past playing in front of my eyes, faces of other people I failed, the smell of ashes in my nose and the sound of sirens in my ears. 

"Nice try. Three minutes." A shiver went down my spine, but I had to try. And then I had to move or I'd be dead, too. And I was the only one who could tell Karen and Foggy why this happened to their friend. Who could tell the Devil that it wasn't his fault. It was mine. 

Matt Murdock just sat there, then he went back to typing, his eyebrows still indicating that he was worried. I forced myself to turn towards the door and leave. Rushing down the stairs I hoped that this would just turn out to be an elaborately tasteless prank.

"Two minutes." And I ran.


	8. Heroes Upon Whom We're Doting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for my absence, guys! I was a little too busy to comment or reply the last couple of weeks, but I'm gonna catch up and the next chapters are also half written.
> 
> This one's a little heavy on emotions maybe. I'm making Veronica relive a couple of things that we need to know about her. She did not appreciate that. But we're close to the end anyway.
> 
> Just kidding. ;) There's still quite a bit to come.
> 
> For the record: The villain here is an OC, so this doesn't have as much to do with past storylines as it might appear.

"One minute." I heard the scary distorted voice ringing in my ear while I raced down the stairs. No way was I gonna take an elevator with the threat of an explosion on my mind. At the same time I was strangely used to that kind of fear after the Neptune Bomber case and started wondering if the whole building was gonna collapse with the offices of Nelson, Murdock & Page.

It didn't feel like a bluff, so I ran & ran. When I finally pushed through the door and rushed out into the street I immediately turned around. Looking up and walking backwards I nearly tripped as I stumbled against a fire hydrant. There can't have been much time left, so I held my breath.

I almost expected the voice to count down the seconds. But instead, the caller said something else: "I want you to admit that you framed Penn and that the real culprit is still active and blew up the law firm. If you don't do that till next week I'll send another present to someone you know, but I won't tell you who."

"No, no, no...." I said then and I don't know if that was what made him let the bomb go off or if it was gonna explode anyway. He had after all warned me not to say a thing. And all of a sudden there was this extremely loud bang and a cloud of fire and smoke erupting from the floor that must have been the one where Matt Murdock was still typing on his computer.

Not sure if there was gonna be more, if the entire building was gonna come down I stumbled even further away, around a corner to safety. There I wouldn't see the flames eating away at the concrete and possibly even more people left inside. It was a building with more offices, but most of them must have closed for the day at least. Except for the ones working impossible hours obviously.

I threw up behind a dumpster forcing myself to move, put more distance between me and the crime scene. But I didn't get very far. After about two blocks I couldn't take another step without leaning against a wall and soon I just slit down there, unable to get up again.

The world was spinning.

One week. Then he'd target another one of my friends. Or family...

And it just wouldn't do to not see the lawyer as a friend after he died like this. I shed more than a couple of tears over his loss that day, much more than I ever would have expected. The sirens were only a dull sound in the background although I really wasn't that far away. But it was far enough. They wouldn't find me there and ask me what happened. I just couldn't deal with that type of questioning. Not again. These minutes felt like hours somehow.

Hours of memories. Of me in my wedding dress talking about Penn's arrest. "It was weird. He was gloating. Kept talking like going to prison was all part of his plan."

Logan and me discussing how long we were gonna drive to our destination, him standing by the car with a big grin on his face, while I was rambling about daylight savings, still not realising that the bomb was right there. 

And Penn's fucking Limerick "...At midday round Fiji Plus the heroes upon whom we're doting" Over and over repeating in my head.

The sound of the car blowing up. Glass. Smoke. Sirens.

Something else. I needed to think about something else.

Thinking of Matt Murdock hurt a little less, despite the guilt I felt over what I saw happen to him. And I also felt I owed him to remember.

I didn't really know him all that well back in college. Apart from me accusing him of faking his blindness and meeting him and Foggy at parties a couple of times we didn't interact much and looking back I think we both had our reservations about each other. I thought he was hiding something and he thought I wanted to expose him. But we sat opposite each other in the library quite often studying late into the night. We just rarely talked while doing that.

Although, when we did talk I remember it turning into quite heated discussions sometimes. Not that we disagreed on many things. On the contrary, we actually ended up on the same side most times. However, when we disagreed with each other we did so with utmost passion.

Matt - after getting him blown up I suddenly started using his first name for some reason - was very Catholic and that came with a lot of judgement of people's sins without considering their circumstances much. His world view seemed a little more black & white, so to say. But to be fair, I think he did set the same standards for himself. Probably higher in some way. I used to think that was, because he thought he was special. 

He was kind of big on second chances, but that seemed more like a principle thing to him and less that he actually believed people could change. I saw people change big time over the years, so I always supported him there in discussions. We were both a little cynical about the system as a whole, so to be honest I didn't even remember what we were fighting about all the time. Even on the topic of so called superheroes be agreed that having power like that would corrupt people, especially after the incident and all the damage from that war. That kind of still blows my mind, by the way, now knowing who he would eventually become.

The people he hated were often the ones I hated, too. One time I saw him talk back to one of the psychotic bullies on campus. Matt had a big smirk on his face, almost begging for the guy to hit him. He did, of course, in front everyone and then Matt just laughed at him like it was hilarious that all he could use against the blind guy in an argument were his fists. He may have been the one bleeding, but morally he was the winner of that fight hands down.

Other times though, it looked like Matt himself wished he could hit someone. When they acted like he was a charity case who didn't deserve to study there, when some frat boy misbehaved with a girl or when someone was being a dick to anyone in general I saw the blind student make a fist. He was the son of a boxer after all. The whole escapade with Elektra and his dad's killer wasn't such a surprise to me. I never considered the man to be harmless in any way.

He also had a bit of a reputation. A lot of guys were jealous of him, because women got along with him well. Very well in fact. Most of them wanted to be more than friends though or more than a one night stand which somehow never seemed to work out. His only male friend on the other hand was Foggy and they were practically inseparable. Not because Matt needed his guide and expert narrator, but because Foggy didn't really treat his blind roommate any different, apart from assisting him a little.

And here's the thing about Foggy: He really must have fought for their friendship. He was forced to prioritise this troubled friend of his in a way and he did it with a smile - back in college and even later when he finally accepted who he also was. Foggy would always have been this lovable, fun goofball. But he wasn't born a saint. So when Matt kind of happened to him and made his life difficult and he just couldn't walk away. Both of them would have become very different if they hadn't met each other.

And as much as Foggy supported Matt in his life and challenged him to not be so destructive, he himself also learned a great deal from his best friend's experiences and issues. And I may not have seen the extent of it in our college years, but I know what good friends can do from my experiences with Wallace and Mac. You need those people in your life who will tell you when you're being an asshole, but also pick you up when you're down. So, I knew the type of friendship these two shared even though I didn't know them that well.

And I also knew that Elektra was gonna threaten that relationship to the very core. Suddenly there was a woman who wanted to be more than friends with Matt and it was quite obvious that he wanted it, too. Suddenly his best friend wasn't the center of his life anymore and I think he didn't know how to feel about that. And you know what? I really thought he was just being jealous at first. But when I started to look into her background, things did look a little shady. 

Didn't mean that she didn't have feelings for Matt. And after she just disappeared and left behind that clearly lovesick law student who really should have been studying I started to wonder if maybe I should try to track her down and ask why she did that to him. Or I needed an explanation from Matt why he was pining for the one who had hurt him when there were so many others who would have loved to take her place. I didn't know why she was so special to him of course.

Foggy liked to pretend that Matt's popularity just had to do with him being really handsome, combined with his tragic childhood making all the girls sympathetic for the guy. There was also the myth doing the rounds that he was really good in bed. Although, maybe that wasn't a myth, because I've never really tested it. But I think there was something else that made women like him: He was a damn good listener.

The same mysterious talent that made him so good in arguments also made that bastard quite the lady's man. He somehow knew exactly what to say to win you over. If there was a hole in your logic he would find it and point it out to you precisely. He could grab your attention and keep it like nobody else could and it sometimes seemed like he knew exactly what you were thinking. Never did Matt Murdock make an argument or suggested to have a coffee with you before he knew exactly what drove you mad or what it was that you wanted to hear. It was easy for him to manipulate people. Looking back I'd say he couldn't really help it, but back then, that trait of his made me nervous.

Still, in the end I didn't consider him to be a player, someone who toyed around with women and then tossed them aside after he used them. Sure, some were a little bitter when he moved on to another one, but they were never really fooled. Not like he seemed to have been, when Elektra crashed into his life and left it a broken mess for his friend Foggy to sort out. 

Over the years I must have forgotten about all that. All I remembered about Matt Murdock was our mutual distrust and how I completely misjudged his situation. But after that explosion I started to think of some incidents that stood out for different reasons. I was starting to put the pieces together, although there were still too many of them missing to really see the entire picture.

One night in particular came back to haunt me. Maybe it was because the last time I saw him he was again hunched over a desk:

We were both studying at the library for big exams at Columbia and we were all beyond stressed, didn't get much sleep and practically lived on coffee and take out. It was also the most companionable we'd been since the whole Elektra debacle that we never discussed. Usually we just talked about law stuff and bounced things off each other, never anything personal. But after we finally had another one of our little debates, I felt that we were comfortable enough. And I was just curious.

It was that one time at the library that we probably both later wanted to pretend never happened. The one where we put the law aside and we both revealed things that we thought we wouldn't share with anyone. You know sometimes how it is easier to talk about personal things with a stranger, so you don't have to think about the consequences of that conversation? Because their opinion of you doesn't matter that much? Yeah, that's how I think this came about.

It must have been around 2am at night and I was getting tired, so I looked at my mobile to see another message from Piz, telling me that it was okay that I didn't have time to talk tonight, because I had to study. It always was so easy with him. I knew he'd never give me a reason to break up, and yet...

Sometimes I thought back to a particular night and a time when I was so young and confused in many ways. I remembered a speech my then ex-boyfriend Logan had made in which he told me that he thought our story was kind of epic. I can still hear the way he said it - out of the blue, really. Dropping something huge on me, while also making it sound like it was more of an afterthought. And then he explained why he thought so: "Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC. But summer's almost here, and we won't see each other at all. And then you leave town... and then it's over."

I didn't know how to respond to that, so I remember asking him if he really thought relationships should be that hard. He just said: "No one writes songs about the ones that come easy." Over the years and another break up with him that moment stayed with me. He just keeps creeping in, even when I was determined not to think of him...

And that day in the library I suddenly had to consider the choices I made in my life and for some reason Matt Murdock seemed like the perfect person to discuss them with. He was also the only one there, but that's beside the point. 

Anyway, so I somehow wondered out loud if it was okay to ask him a personal question. For a second he looked like I was going crazy from all the work, then I saw him already get defensive. But I quickly reassured him that I was not gonna accuse him of anything this time. I was just going through something that had actually nothing to do with him, but I'd understand if he was scared, knowing fully well that saying it like that would bait him. Matt was never one to back down from a challenge. He said "shoot" and waited in caution.

To be honest, I knew however I phrased this, he'd probably be pissed, but I couldn't help it. I had to ask: "I was thinking... if Elektra came back. Would you... get together with her again?" Foggy was avoiding the E-word like a plague after she disappeared and the shock on Matt's face told me he had a good reason to do so. "Sorry, you probably don't want to talk about her..."

"I'd rather not. No," his tone was a little incredulous. "No offense." He was white as a sheet, holding his arm up while reading, so I wasn't able to see his face.

"Yeah... I figured." I went back to focus on my notes as well and we stayed like that for a couple of minutes. Minutes that became more awkward the longer this uncomfortable silence stretched.

So, obviously, I had to clarify, why I wanted to poke at this wound of his. He was very annoyed when I started to talk again. "It's just... It's just that sometimes I wonder if we're more influenced by the experiences we have with certain people than we think. And it's not really the person we miss, but what they made us feel..."

"Veronica, don't you have a girlfriend or whatever who you can discuss this with?" He gave me one of his looks where his eyebrows were raised above his glasses, clearly communicating that I was wasting his time and that I was also overstepping boundaries that were very much fortified. He looked ready to launch a preemptive attack if I kept pushing.

I wasn't afraid though. "What? You're telling me Foggy doesn't talk about Marci with you? I'm not asking you to hold my hand and comfort me. We don't have to do our nails, devour icecream and cry about our exes. I just wanted to know what you think. Forget that i asked." I know I am a hypocrite. While I liked asking direct questions I can rarely handle when others direct the same at me.

"Did it look like I was in any place to give relationship advice?", he commented darkly.

"I didn't ask for advice smartass. I felt like maybe I could relate to what you were going through." Back at Columbia and far from Neptune I was probably the most stable I'd ever been. So, he didn't know that I've also been through my share of heartbreak. I wasn't sharing these things there. I've also done what Matt was doing back then, throwing myself into work to focus on something else, so I wouldn't have to... think.

Slightly tense we went back to studying, but the silence didn't feel as heavy anymore after a while.

And then it was him who reopened the conversation. I'm pretty sure he could sense that my questions were sincere and maybe he could relate to them more than I was aware. "I think it's important to really know someone," he said. I didn't expect him to say anything anymore, so he had to repeat the sentence.

Still eager to talk about this I closed the book I wasn't able to concentrate on anyway. "Right... But you only really know someone, if you've seen them at their worst and their best. Experiences can do that for you."

"Depends on the experiences you share. They'd have to be really intense."

"Exactly!"

And that's when he seemed to have realised why I asked about Elektra. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again and buried his head in his hands, tired from all the stuff he had to repeat because of all the things he had missed while he was spending all his time with her.

I got both of us another coffee and when he also closed his book I tried to pick up the conversation again feeling that he was finally interested. "Maybe it's because in all the popular stories we want pain, blood and drama, so we look for all that stuff in real life, too."

Matt stared at his cup as if he was meditating or something and then he said: "Sometimes we're drawn to people that aren't good for us. But we can't help it."

Did he regret what happened with Roscoe Sweeney then? Was that why Elektra disappeared?

"Yeah... I used to date this guy. He had a tendency to get into trouble." He smiled at that. "It didn't work out, but I still think about him sometimes." It was too difficult, I kept telling myself. Epic love stories are for children.

"Do you still love him?"

I groaned at that word. "What does that even mean?"

He chuckled. "Don't you have a longterm boyfriend or something?"

"Yeah... And I'm perfectly happy. It's nice and all. But just sometimes... I don't want it to be and that terrifies me." It was weird admitting that out loud.

He frowned in that way he usually did when he was trying to grasp something about our legal system that just didn't seem right or fair. "I get that. Maybe there's just something wrong with us."

Us. He said us.

"You really believe that?"

Then he let out a long yawn. "I believe that we should go to sleep." And he started packing up his stuff.

I also had to admit to myself then that I was not gonna be able to concentrate on law texts at this hour anyway. "You're right."

Afterwards I offered to lead him to his room and I didn't expect him to agree, but he gave me smile and a polite nod instead. With his hand on my arm we moved across empty hallways and when we almost arrived at his room where Foggy was long asleep, he suddenly spoke up again: "I'm not sure what I'd do."

"What?" I was completely lost in my thoughts and had no clue what this statement was related to.

"If she came back. Elektra. I don't know what I would do. But I loved her and I think if you don't know what that means..." He licked his lips. "Maybe you should ask that boyfriend of yours. Or that ex of yours. People can change, you know?"

I smiled at him, thinking he wouldn't know. "Sometimes they do."

People change all the time, but what if you don't change along with them?

And what if they leave you forever? They're a part of us, our relationships with them shaped us, but sometimes we end up alone. How epically fucked up is that?

Why that was the conversation that replayed in my head after I saw the offices of Nelson, Murdock & Page blow up I didn't know. It was still better than thinking of... that day. But I couldn't wait any longer. I had to call Foggy and tell him what happened. He had to hear it from me. So, I took out the phone and gathered my courage.

The lawyer picked up immediately. "Hey! I'm just on a walk with Pony and he got very friendly with a cute lady dog half his size. I'm pretty sure she won't get pregnant from his attention, but I dragged him away just in case. What's up?"

I leaned my head back against the wall, knowing this was gonna be hard. "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault."

"What?" The tone in his voice changed drastically. He knew this was serious. "Veronica, what happened?"

"Foggy, there was a bomb at the office and... Matt was inside." There was no way to soften the blow.

The heroes upon whom we're doting...

"How do you.... Are you telling me he's dead?" 

"I'm so sorry!", I said again and then nearly got a heart attack, when Daredevil dropped down right in front of me.

"Give me the phone!", he practically growled at me.


	9. I Know Nothing

"Give me the phone, Veronica!", the Devil demanded, clearly on edge.

"What are you doing here? It's not even dark yet..." It was a reasonable question under the circumstances. He usually came out later at night. Unless he was following a lead maybe. 

"I heard what happened and wanted to check if everyone's okay. Now, can you please let me talk to Foggy?" To me it looked like the lawyer he'd been working with closely was killed in an explosion, so it did kind of make sense that he wanted to talk to the guy's law partner. 

The man in question was stuttering on the phone. "Who... who is this?" He sounded miserable. Which was to be expected. But also a tad bit hopeful which I at that time didn't notice.

Without another word I handed over the phone and the vigilante seemed relieved. I think he was maybe a second away from taking it by force. "Hey, it's me... um, Daredevil."

Obviously I didn't hear the other side of that conversation, but it seemed quite intense. I mean, I had just told Foggy that his best friend was dead, so that was to be expected. And even knowing now that the supposedly dead guy was standing right next to me trying to clear up that misinformation without revealing his identity to me, it still had to be emotionally charged. "Yeah... I know... I'm so sorry..."

He kept going like that. Short affirmations and sentences intended to reassure Foggy that he was absolutely fine while also taking his worries seriously. At some point he walked away a bit and started to whisper. Apparently this wasn't even the first time that Matt was believed to be dead, because of some exploding building. But that I was gonna learn from Jessica later. We'll get to that soon.

I noticed that the Devil himself also seemed a little shaken and I thought that this can't have been the first time he lost an ally like that. In reality it must have been Foggy's grief that affected him. I can't even imagine what that must have been like for the poor lawyer, getting a call like that. And to be honest I wasn't good at this kind of thing, so I was glad someone else wanted to have this conversation instead of me.

When Foggy was finally calmed down his vigilante buddy finished the call and looked a little lost for a moment. Then he gave my phone back to me and asked: "Are you okay?"

No, I wasn't. "Yeah..."

He tilted his head and I realised that he didn't need any powers to know I was lying through my teeth. The tears just started falling and I couldn't stop them. It was just a little too much. For months I had thought that maybe I got over everything too quickly. That something was wrong with me because I expected to be more of a wreck after losing my husband just after the wedding. But that day I felt it all at once suddenly. Grief, loss, survivor's guilt, regret... call it what you want, it was all there and it was Matt Murdock's supposed death that triggered it. 

Daredevil didn't feel the same obviously, since he was very much alive, especially dressed up as the vigilante, but he still felt something, after making sure that Foggy knew he was okay. He also needed comfort apparently. I'm not sure if it was me or him who initiated it, but we ended up hugging each other after that phone call. I was just glad not to be alone and yes, I'll admit that I felt safe in his arms. Who wouldn't?

"This isn't really about Murdock, is it?" He was whispering beside my ear, but thankfully not letting me go. Maybe he even contemplated telling me then, I don't know. He should have told me, really... That would have saved us a lot of trouble.

But no, it wasn't about him. Not in this intensity. Still, I thought Matt was a good guy and none of the strange things I noticed about him back in law school would change that. The lawyer didn't deserve a death like that. So, quietly, I replied that it was a little bit about him and I also had to admit that this was all my fault. I needed him to know that, because I knew how protective he was of his friends or allies.

However, he didn't like hearing it at all. So I lost his comforting embrace and he suddenly put one hand on my shoulder and another one under my chin, nudging me to look at him. "Hey, no... please don't think that." He brushed a tear from my cheek with his gloved thumb. "You didn't set the bomb, you didn't leave it there with him."

"But I did", I winced at the thought. "That asshole called me and told me about the bomb."

"You didn't put it there," he argued. "What else could you have done?"

He was right. Of course he was. I closed my eyes thinking back to that impossible situation and I slowly nodded. "If I had said anything or if I'd have warned him, we would have both died." Maybe. That still didn't help. 

"Yes, see? You didn't do anything wrong." Then he pulled me back into a hug. "I'm sorry." And somehow that did help, coming from him, because I knew that this was the kind of thing he had to deal with, too. Losing people.

"Yeah, me too." I felt his arms around me and I really should have been surprised that this didn't feel more awkward, that I didn't feel trapped, since we barely knew each other and I hadn't even seen his face. But I don't know... He was familiar in a way that was hard to pin down.

"You... you want to talk about it?" It was odd how cautious the man called Daredevil could sound when he wasn't beating someone up. I could feel that he was tense, too. "Not... not about today, but... you know..."

"No." It was a sweet offer and I knew he was relieved when I didn't accept it and pulled away instead. 

"You're gonna have to make a statement though...", he carefully said. "I can ask Brett to go through it with you tomorrow. Would that work for you?"

That made me find even more appreciation for the guy and I remembered how he had handled the situation with the boy in the hotel as well. "Thanks. That... that would really help."

"Sure. No problem. Let me bring you home." 

"No, you don't need to... I've got a car..." I didn't want anyone to know where my hotel was. Some people call it paranoid, but usually those people didn't experience any break-ins.

With a sad smile he pointed at my hand shivering and my eyes already wet from crying started to get glassy again. "You can't drive like this. It's too dangerous."

Of course, I was still in shock. I nodded and started moving, feeling his hand on my back. "It's quite far though. Maybe I should just get a taxi or an uber."

"Sure, but I'll wait with you if you don't mind."

I really wanted to reject his help. He didn't offer to bring me to a safe place again, but somehow I had a feeling that he was gonna watch over me anyway. Maybe him knowing where I stayed would be a good idea after all. "Actually, I wouldn't mind walking for a bit."

So, we did that. It took us about 40 minutes during which he only asked if I know who the bomber could be and I told him about the forum of Penn supporters and Mac saying that someone new registered there asking if one of them was in New York. He agreed that this did sound suspicious and that I should definitely get all of it on record. I knew why he said that. In case something happened to me. But it wasn't me I was worried about. It was my dad, my friends...

I noticed that the Devil seemed to know exactly where we were going the entire time. But I didn't call him out on it when we arrived at my hotel, where I checked in under a different name. To be honest, that night it felt kinda good to know that the vigilante could have an eye on things. He was gone before I was able to say goodbye, so I just mumbled a "thank you" into the wind.

I got around three hours of sleep that night. It was the first time in a while that Logan appeared in my dreams. And of all things, he was teasing me about that strange conversation with the lawyer back in law school. "You talked to Matt Murdock about me." Dream-Logan had a shit-eating grin on his face. "You were just waiting for my call to save you from boredom, weren't you?"

There were new scars on his chest. "Is this from a mission...?"

He shrugged. "Don't you remember? Penn killed me."

I did remember. When I opened my eyes, my heart was still beating from said memory. The bed was cold and empty. Sometimes in the months after his death it would happen that I would wake up thinking that he was just off being a soldier somewhere and then I remembered that he was gone. My brain just sometimes needed a moment to catch up with this fact. It wasn't long enough to really relive it, though and the shock became duller over time, until it was just one more thing making it harder to face the day.

What made it easier was working a case, so I was eager to listen to Mac's voicemail that morning. She said that she got an alert about the explosion at the law firm and wanted to check if I was fine. Since she didn't sound too worried I figured that the press didn't report that anyone died. She also told me that the files Ally had sent me seemed safe, but that they looked like a lot of nonesense made up to send me in the wrong direction.

So, I figured I didn't need to open them urgently. Also, Ally was the one who sent me to the bomb with her weird warning about the law firm. I was gonna find that bitch, but I was not gonna go on a wild-goose chase following her bread crumbs.

A few minutes later I got a call from Foggy and I picked up immediately, surprised that he even wanted to talk to me after what happened. "Foggy, how are you...?"

"Matt's alive, Veronica."

It took a second for me to register what the lawyer had said. "What?"

"The bomb went off on another floor and it did do some damage to our office, but it could have been much worse." He still did sound a little upset.

I closed my eyes, feeling like I dodged a bullet and all of a sudden things didn't look quite as bad as I thought they were the day before, the day I thought Matt Murdock had died and I felt responsible. "Is he fine?"

"Yeah, he's gonna need a couple of days at home. We're all working from home now anyway. At least this way nobody will listen to our conversations." Trust Foggy to find an upside in all this. He probably didn't want me to feel bad. "Look... our friend told me that you'll talk to Brett today. You want me to come along as your lawyer?"

"Am I in trouble?"

"No, no... it's just... well, make sure that you say you were traumatised and wanted to go home. You were not trying to withhold information. In the morning you called us and we contacted Brett about your statement. Alright?"

That made sense. Mostly they were just trying to keep Daredevil out of it. "I don't think I need you there." The less people I have to tell about Penn the better. "But thank you."

"Any time, Mars. Honestly, I'm just happy that you're both okay. We'll find this psycho together, alright?"

Yeah, I only had a week to find him, so I needed any help I could get. "What about the office? How bad is it?"

"It'll be alright. Don't worry about it."

He didn't even want to hear my apology and I still felt a little sick after talking to him. I tried to focus on the fact that Matt was alive and I didn't get him killed, but at the same time I was now a little worried that I could become a suspect. If I wanted to find out who was behind this I couldn't afford to get distracted by another pointless investigation. And there was also no time to dwell on my issues. I needed to find this bastard fast.

But first I had to talk to Brett Mahoney and I didn't lose any time going to him. He was however busy and I had to wait quite a bit for him to show up and do his interrogation. He looked stressed though, so I didn't comment. I was just glad that he was going to do this and not someone like officer Stain.

The detective was somehow the first person I talked to in this city who hadn't seen the documentary on the Neptune bomber and while I was tempted to tell him that he should just watch it, so he wouldn't have to ask me about that case, I didn't want him to get the wrong idea about Penn. However I shouldn't have been worried, because Brett Mahoney was the kind of guy who did his job properly, so instead of a journalist's take who also wanted to sell a story, Brett wanted to know mine and he was gonna check out the evidence later.

I told him how I had figured it out. How Penn even admitted to me that it was him who planted the last bombs just to make his theory look right. When he was caught he must have decided to teach me a lesson by leaving another bomb with me and even giving me the time when it would explode...

Brett stayed professional throughout the tale which made it easier to get through it. He neither tried to reassure me or show sympathy, nor did he poke at the gaps in my story with suspicion. He just put down the facts and gave me the opportunity to clarify details if things didn't make sense to him. He waited patiently when I needed a little time to gather my thoughts. I remember thinking that things would have been different for me if I had given my first ever statement as a teenager to someone like him. Someone competent and professional. I saw why Daredevil trusted the guy.

Why the opinion of a vigilante apparently mattered to me, I didn't know. But then Brett started asking about the new bomber and I slowly relaxed a bit. The details of this case were less painful, especially now that Matt turned out to have survived the explosion.

"You said, he wanted you to admit that you framed Penn within a week. Or someone else might die?" 

"Yeah, and I can't. I don't know what he's even talking about. It's all some ridiculous conspiracy theory. There was enough evidence. You'll see. I just had to point in the right direction and they found it."

"I know what that's like, trust me," Brett rolled his eyes. He probably had to deal with loonies like that, too. "I will look into all that later. What confuses me is the connection to your case. You think this is all just a distraction? Maybe someone just knew you were involved in that case and wanted the media and the police to focus on that?"

I thought about that for a second. "Could be. I mean it's not like the target was a... close friend of mine."

"He was just one of the few people in New York you know?"

"No, I know more people here, just no one I really stayed in touch with after leaving." After getting back to do PI work in my hometown. And after getting back together with Logan. Basically after going back to my old life. "If someone wanted to hurt me, he could have done it in Neptune. This guy... he said that he was happy that I came to him. That's why I think he's from that weird forum my friend Mac has an eye on. I think they recruited him there."

"Who are 'they', Mrs Mars?" I was taken aback for a second that he was using my last name and he seemed to notice, because he offered me an apologetic smile. 

But the thing was: I really still didn't know the answer to his question. Yet. "I think we're dealing with people who manipulate others to do their dirty work for them." First the men who were hired to attack Daredevil, now this asshole who is happy to terrorize me... Honestly, my list of enemies is long, but most of them are in Neptune.

I noticed that Brett was writing something down. "You mean, they contact people who want revenge? Or justice?"

Was it just me or did Brett point a finger at himself...? Or wait, at the glass behind him? Someone was watching us.

I chose my words carefully. "I think they use people who are desperate. Desperate to be right or desperate to make money." I thought I probably shouldn't mention the cops who were being blackmailed. Or Martin who got this mysterious new job before he died. Brett did investigate this unofficially with me and whoever was watching probably shouldn't know that.

But things were starting to make a little more sense. "Do you know this guy?" Brett shoved a photo in my direction and suddenly I was looking at Martin Irving. The victim. I frowned. Obviously, I wasn't sure what to say. Could one of the cops be behind the glass? "This man's sister says that he was killed." At least they were officially looking into his death now, right? Is that what Brett wanted me to know? I shook my head, hoping that was the right reaction. Maybe I should just give someone the video showing how Martin was killed. His sister should probably know.

"All right, I think we're done here." He took the photo back and suddenly his writing appeared under it. It read: Take this.

I quickly grabbed the note and Brett got up to open the door for me. I tried to act normal and asked where I could find a toilet. After staying for a couple of hours at the precinct I really had to go also. But first I quickly read Brett's message. It said: Michaels got into the evidence place one day after the video was taken and one day before Martin was found dead with heroin in his blood. So, the cops did stage his death like that, making sure that it was treated like it was drugs related.

Brett must have noticed this when he put the heroin and spice back that I made him bring, so Pony could look for them at Martin's place. But if he didn't say anything yet, he needed more evidence. We needed to find these people who were blackmailing the cops and they could lead us to the asshole who tried to bomb Nelson, Murdock & Page. Or the other way around. I just wasn't sure what was gonna be harder.

When I left the bathroom a mostly bald older man with a map in his hand spotted me.

"Veronica!", said a voice that I didn't expect to hear anywhere in New York.

"Dad?! What are you doing here?" I rushed towards him and gave him the hug he clearly needed.

"The question is: What are you still doing here?" He squeezed me a little, letting me know just how worried he was. But before we could talk I saw Brett come our way, stepping away from a cop who looked a lot like Michaels. Shit. What was that guy doing here?

"Keith Mars, I assume?" They shook hands, dad regarding the man closely.

"Dad, this is Detective Sergeant-"

"Brett Mahoney." My father finished with a grateful smile on his lips. "We talked on the phone." 

I gaped at the traitor who looked a little too amused for my taste. "What? When I talked to Matt last night it sounded like you were a little stressed out. And I was not surprised that you forgot to give this man a call. I didn't expect him to come here, just wanted to ask some questions." He already knew then that I talked to the psycho. And he probably had the basic facts about Penn's case, too. 

Standing next to the cop dad made funny faces telling me that he absolutely approved of me working with this guy. Probably especially in comparison to the other one. "Seriously?! You guys heard about the threat and thought it would be a good idea to bring my father here?"

They looked at each other and shrugged with Brett going. "Yup. Keith made a good case for it." 

Keith?! One conversation over the phone and he's already Keith? "Mars, you two should... talk. I've got some work to do." He was probably right about that, but I also wanted to work. I needed to solve this and Martin's was our case now, wasn't it? But I knew my dad was going to focus on something else.

And when I saw his pleading eyes, I knew that I couldn't put this off. "Alright... coffee?"

"I thought you'd never ask." He grinned and gave me another squeeze.

We went to find ourselves a shabby little café. It didn't look great, but it was close by.

"So... vigilantes, bombs, break-ins... Fill me in, kiddo. What have you gotten yourself into now." I buried my head in my hands and let out a loud groan. "Let it out. We've got time."

"No, we don't! He threatened you! Why would you be coming here?"

"In a week. I'll leave again if you want me to, but first I need to know that you're okay."

"I'm fine..." I winced. Even I didn't believe myself.

"Look, I didn't want to push you and I was glad when you decided to see Logan's therapist. But, we never really talked about what happened."

"We both know what happened! You flew all the way here to ask me about feelings? Really?"

Dad shook his head. "To be honest. If it comes to work there's nothing you can learn from me anymore. But I've got a feeling you've become a little more reckless over here and I just want to make sure you're taking care of yourself."

"I AM absolutely safe. Daredevil is looking out for me..." I saw him release a frustrated sigh. "Look, you don't know him."

"Do you? Veronica, the man's dangerous. Even if he's a good guy, which alright, let us trust your judgement on this... But the kind of fights he gets involved in? Organised crime and big city gangsters. Professional killers like the Punisher? This is a little too much for you."

"I can deal with it." I was too stubborn to meet his gaze. "Ask Mac!"

The silence that followed told me that Mac's account probably wasn't helping my case. "You're not trying to get yourself killed here?"

"What? No!" A tear was running down my cheek, but I quickly rubbed it away.

"Veronica..."

"I promise. I'll be careful."

Suddenly, there was a news alert on both our phones and we frowned at each other. We took out our devices and started reading the headline. I gasped.

This wasn't helping at all. 

But I knew we both had to see the footage of this particular story, so I came to his side of the table and we started watching with dread consuming me. This couldn't be real, right?

It was a video of Daredevil fighting someone brutally. I really had to flinch a couple of times, especially with my dad sitting next to me and with the discussion we were just having.

And then things got even more confusing when I saw Martin's face. Right before Daredevil hit him with what looked like deadly force. This couldn't be real, right? So what, if Michaels was looking something up in the place where they stored the evidence? It didn't mean that Stain or him killed Martin. Could they be covering for Daredevil? That didn't make sense. Then again, the vigilante was defending them also....

I did not want to believe this, but honestly? My dad was right. What did I really know about him other than what he told me. Or his friends. What if Daredevil and the cops were helping each other out somehow, because they all screwed up?

Maybe he just went too far? Maybe Martin was a criminal involved in blackmail and Daredevil had some reason to do this.

No, I had to stop making excuses and warping the cases in the way I wanted them to be. But I also had to face the fact that I was biased, because I liked the vigilante. "I think my judgement may be a little clouded..."

"You think?" My dad smirked at me and put an arm around my shoulder. "Well, it's good if you're still able to see that. But I think you should tell me from the beginning. What exactly is the case?"

"I'm not sure I can tell you that, because I don't even know myself."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't resist a Keith guest appearance. I just love the guy. :) But I think it's just a short one. Jessica Jones coming up!
> 
> And I just want to say to any Veronica Mars fans out there: I saw a lot of angry comments on Logan's death and I have to say I was not happy with the way they did it. It felt a bit like it was done for shock value, in the last moments of the show... I would have preferred him to kind of die off screen on a mission somewhere. But I do think his story arc was done. And while it would have been nice to just have them be happy, TV doesn't work like that I guess? It would have been nice to see them tell other stories, but they would just have created some farfetched relationship drama again. So, I would have been okay with that ending, if it wasn't you know THE ending... I would have been so invested in Veronica's journey moving on from that and that's why I'm writing this basically.  
> Plus, Daredevil closure. You know? ;) But part of me still has hopes for a reunion there. Contract issues shouldn't be a problem now, right? But at least that show got a damn good ending, despite the huge potential for future stories... 
> 
> Also, I do think Annika Ann's newest story in the Damned series had a bit of an influence on how this shaped up. Especially, the way Vera deals with her loss, although Veronica is a bit more on the "I'm fine"-train. So, thank you for writing that. ;)
> 
> So, sorry for rambling! :D Let me know, what you guys think happened here? Did Matt lose control maybe? His actions can look bad from an outside perspective...


	10. You Let Me Believe You Were Dead!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, forgot to mention: Jessica Jones season 3 spoilers in this chapter. Sorry, kind of forgot that I didn't mention that this is set after basically all the Netflix shows. Oops...

The way Martin's sister Nina talked about the deceased man made me determined to follow this to the end, even if I was obviously not getting payed and my priority was the guy who had threatened the people close to me. My dad finally agreed to leave New York again after I promised I wouldn't work with Daredevil as long as it was objectively unclear if he was involved in any corruption or cover-up.

When the vigilante called I didn't even pick up, too afraid that my instinct to trust him blindly would make it possible for him to manipulate me. I thought I needed to find out on my own.

"This means you also don't know who your brother was working for?", Brett asked. Of course teaming up with the cop was a bit of a loophole, because I forgot to mention to my dad that the man was a buddy of the vigilante as well. He liked Mahoney. I was gonna work with that.

Martin's sister had her arms crossed. "No, but I don't think his job was anything good. If he attracted the attention of the damn Devil of Hell's Kitchen... I warned him to not get involved in anything shady, but he just wouldn't listen."

"You're sure Daredevil needed a reason to attack him?"

"What, you mean because Martin was black?" Nina raised an eyebrow at me and I nodded, thinking of the many comments calling the vigilante a racist after the video went viral. "The Devil doesn't discriminate. I also was sceptical about that at first. He did fight an awful lot of small time criminals who happened to be from families of minorities or immigrants. But he also got rid of Wilson Fisk twice. And a lot of corrupt cops and feds along the way. So, I do think that he intends to fight bad people and maybe... he had a reason to think that my brother was one of them."

"But you don't think your brother was a bad person..." She told us about a young Martin Irving who spent his childhood cheering everyone up and who made sure to spend a lot of time with his dying grandmother. Could that boy really turn bad? "Maybe you were wrong about that vigilante?"

Nina thought about this for a moment and Brett raised an eyebrow. Then the high school teacher said: "I have a lot of students in my classes who I'm afraid might end up on the wrong side of the law und I try to make sure that they don't want to cross paths with the Devil in their life. Ever. And when Martin started spending more money and got really defensive when I asked him about it, I warned him, too, about getting on the Devil's radar."

"What did he say?"

"That I didn't have to worry and that he wasn't hurting any innocents." She shook her head. "You have to understand that Martin was a sweet guy. He didn't get into fights. He was a smart kid. He knew it didn't help. But... I know that he could get worked up about things out of his control when he wasn't partying with friends and I always worried that sooner or later he'd just snap."

"Did he ever mention a cop? Someone who was violent?" Brett asked with his notepad in his hand. "Someone called Stain or Michaels?"

"He didn't mention any cop's name. But there was a family - I think their name was Cooper... Their son was found with drugs in his system. He was supposed to be a casualty in a gang war, but his parents said he'd never taken any drugs or was even involved in a crime before." 

It made sense that she'd be suspicious after knowing about that. "Your brother did smoke the occasional joint, though."

"That doesn't make him a heroin addict," Nina said, glaring at me. "See, this is why I'm not sure I trust that video. We only see Martin's face in it once. I think, someone's trying to pin this on Daredevil."

When we were back out on the street, I wondered what Brett thought about all this, but I knew I just wanted him to say that she was right and the Devil would never kill anyone. And I'm not sure if I was more afraid that he might say she was wrong or if I was afraid that he'd give me a reason to throw caution into the wind and just go with my gut feeling.

Brett sensed my inner turmoil somehow. "You wanna ask. So ask." He smirked. "I won't tell Keith about it. Promise."

"Are you still in contact with him?" Even that we didn't discuss. I just tried to ignore the whole issue.

"Yeah. I spoke to him."

"Did he explain?"

There was a pause. "No."

"Do you KNOW if he did it or not?"

"There's no evidence. If that's what you're asking. You want my opinion or not?"

I hesitated. Of course, I wanted his opinion. But to be honest, did I really need him to say it? He wouldn't keep working with the guy if he thought he was a racist. Right? "Nope, I think I'm good." And yeah, it gave me a little hope knowing he was still working with the guy.

Brett laughed. "Alright. I'm gonna see if I can find the Coopers. You stay safe. You hear me?"

"Sure. And maybe look for other suspicious drug related deaths."

He gave me a solemn nod. "I will."

My next move was finding out the name of the guy we saw at the big law firm. For that I had to check out every one of their employees which was a little annoying, but doable. Most of the lawyers had professional portraits on the firm's website and the few who didn't were easily found somewhere on social media. They all liked to present themselves, just like the 09ers - the privileged kids - in Neptune. So I excluded them one by one and in the end only a man called Ron Simmons was left. Of course I couldn't be 100% sure that the guy Karen and me ran into at Chao & Benowitz was actually working there, although it was very likely.

But it was strange that it seemed impossible to find any pictures of him, as if he deleted them everywhere. I finally found one very old blurry one on his mother's profile. The old woman was easily contacted, because she participated in a lot of online contests and gave away information way too freely. When I called her I pretended to search for Ron to return a jacket he lost in a café. She didn't even wonder why I had a picture of her son, but confirmed that it was him.

She also told me that he suddenly went on a vacation and I was starting to think it was the sort of trip he wasn't likely to return from. If someone tries to delete himself from the internet like that he was probably running from something. Or someone.

And I knew that from experience. I was running from something as well after all, ignoring the fact that everyone kept checking on me. After my dad even flew to New York it was Leo's turn to call. Of course, I tried to make the FBI agent understand that he didn't need to worry about the explosion and that everyone was fine. "You all need to relax and let me handle this-"

"Veronica, listen!", he suddenly growled. And Leo never got loud. "I went to prison to see Penn."

"You... what?" That actually took me by surprise.

"I just wanted to know if he knew anything."

I was torn between yelling at him and asking him what the asshole said which - shit - was just the kind of reaction he'd enjoy. "He probably liked that, didn't he?"

"He offered to help. Wanted to make a deal."

I scoffed. "Yeah, right. He's got enough journalists he can make a joke of. I hope you didn't give him any clues."

"Well, I went there, because one of them - a local reporter - actually asked him about the explosion at the law firm since you were there and the bomb was kind of similar to his. I wanted to see if he could be in contact with whoever did it."

"No, no! Trust me, Leo, I think this is unrelated. I'm not jeopardising this case by letting a fucking narcissist share his opinion on a psycho who might be idolising him. I swear I can solve this here in New York, you just wait and see. I won't let Penn get the last laugh." Not again, I thought in my head.

"Good. Because I told him as much." Leo did sound a little amused over the phone. "You're Veronica Mars, I know you're gonna get the guy. And I'm also pretty sure Penn doesn't know a thing, because he kept trying to get information out of me."

That was... actually good to hear. I smiled. "Thank you for the confidence."

"Sure, I just thought you should know." There was an awkward pause. "Anyway, if you ever need me... which I know you won't." He laughed. 

"I might. Thank you." It's not like I wanted to. Not after all the times I used him to get information. Still, if someone's life depended on it I knew that he wouldn't hesitate to break a lot of rules for me and I was truly grateful. Just, this time I hoped I wouldn't have to ask him for anything. "And Leo? Careful with the mail you get. In fact, maybe go on a vacation or something."

"Veronica Mars, are you worried about me? I'm touched." I could hear the humour in his voice.

"I'm serious. We don't know who is doing this and why..."

"All I hear is that I'm on your list of people you care about."

"Don't let it get to your head."

"I wouldn't dare." Then a little more serious he added: "I'll be careful. Promise!"

It was a little awkward when I went to take Pony for a walk that day, because Foggy only looked after my dog since Daredevil asked him to and I was at the time not answering the vigilante's calls and I didn't even look at the text he had sent. The lawyer however reassured me that he didn't mind Pony's company at all.

Before I left he only suggested that I should at the very least hear the guy out. "But no matter what, Pony's safe with me, alright?" He grinned and I felt bad again.

Karen also sent a message saying that I shouldn't believe everything I see. The only one who didn't contact me was Mary or Jane or Ally something.... Maybe she knew I wouldn't trust her after she lured me into a trap. Maybe she fled with this Ron Simmons guy.

Eventually, I figured that I owed it to Foggy or rather their entire firm and Daredevil to at least check out this message, so I did. And I don't know what I expected him to write from a burner phone, but I was still disappointed, because it just said: "Alright, I get it. Take care."

It clearly meant he wouldn't call again and he hadn't since he'd sent it. And that really made me curious more than anything he could have written or said. He must have been aware of that I was sure and I cursed myself while already dialling his number.

"Hey, Veronica..." The Devil's voice was tired this time, like he'd already given up the idea of hearing from me again. "It wasn't me, I swear." 

"You have to know how this looks, right?"

"I do." He literally didn't. "Which is why I want to prove it to you. Jessica sent me a text and-"

"Wait," I thought I must have heard that wrong. "You mean Jessica Jones, the PI who refused to talk to me when I mentioned I was working with you?"

"She did what?" There was a pause. "Well, maybe we could visit her. She seems to think she has some information for... us."

Alright, I thought that might actually help with one of the reservations I had about trusting him. At least I didn't expect it making it worse. Funny how things turn out sometimes. "Why was she so mad at you?"

"Maybe... Can we talk about this when we're there?", he said hopefully and I reluctantly agreed, because the curiosity was killing me. I knew he was using this against me, but I just couldn't resist. Plus: Maybe this Jessica Jones could help me find the man who bombed the law firm. There weren't many days left to find him.

I had to take the chance.

Alias Investigations was to be found in a corner of Hell's Kitchen that looked even worse than the one where the offices of Nelson, Murdock and Page were situated, at least before the explosion. Daredevil joined me as soon as I reached the building. He was probably waiting to sneak up on me and almost gave me a heart attack. "Sorry, I hope I didn't scare you."

He stood a couple of feet away from me and I was surprised when I realised that despite what I'd seen I didn't feel any different around him. I just made an annoyed sound and opened the door. I was frustrated with myself as much as him to be honest. Why I was still holding on to this strange connection we had forged I didn't know and it was irritating.

We took the elevator in silence and I was amazed to notice that when one of Jones' neighbours joined us he didn't even acknowledge the Devil next to me. Apparently seeing someone with a cloth hiding half of his face didn't even raise eyebrows around here. Encouraging. Then again, he was kinda famous here, despite the newest controversy.

There was a bullet hole in the PI's door which made me think that this woman probably had more enemies than Mars Investigations did. But she was super strong, so maybe she could deal with it. On the other hand I saw her finish a glass of Whiskey when we were entering, so maybe... not so much. The Devil knocked on the door, but didn't wait for her reply before he entered her space.

An assistant then jumped up to greet the vigilante and me. However, before he could say anything more, Jones told him to leave us alone.

After putting her drink down she just looked resigned and her resemblence with Gia again struck me, making me almost forget why we were there, until she opened her mouth to say: "So... you're alive."

The man next to me replied: "I'm sorry Jessica, I should have told you, but I wasn't... there was a lot going on and I didn't want you to bother..."

"You bothered when my sister tried to follow your bullshit example." Then she looked at me and asked: "Are you also gonna get a costume like these idiots? Maybe something with a cape?"

I snorted. "I don't think so." Then I looked at the man beside me and put a hand on my hip. "No offence, but the horns were ridiculous." I was kind of glad that I wasn't running around with someone who dressed up like a demon.

Jessica smirked. "They looked like ears, didn't they?"

A little annoyed with this conversation the man who was now wearing a more subtle black costume crossed his arms. "For the record: The red suit was armour."

There was a heavy pause and Jessica poured herself another drink. Actually, my dad would probably have liked me to get protection like that, but I felt like this conversation didn't really concern me, so I stayed silent. "Why aren't you wearing it now, Devil Boy? I'm sure you could have gotten a new one."

Good question. One that he decided to dodge. "When you told me to fuck off I did, Jessica."

If looks could kill, Daredevil would have gone up in smoke right there. "She's at the raft now. The fucking raft."

"I'm sorry. I thought you had Hogarth." I immediately knew that I heard this name somewhere. While I was wondering about that, Daredevil tried to explain himself. "But I could still help with that. I could-"

"No. Really. Just... don't..." The PI shook her head. "I don't even think she would want that."

I was getting frustrated. "Would someone please explain?!"

The vigilante licked his lips. "What happened is that I screwed up."

"What happened is that he stayed behind in a building, knowing it would crash down on him and when like a miracle - and maybe with the help of that fucking silly red suit - he survived... he didn't feel it was necessary to notify us."

"I didn't think you cared."

"I don't, asshole."

Okay, so maybe this explained Jessica's reaction when I tried to contact her, but it didn't really help prove that the video of him attacking Martin was somehow fake.

Daredevil knew this, too. "You did write to me about the video..." He also smiled a little under the mask, making me think that maybe these kind of insults were normal for their relationship. Maybe even a good sign. 

But Jones just rolled her eyes. "I didn't have her name or number." She pointed at me. "I realized this could be connected to a case of mine, because she tried to contact me a few days ago and I figured I probably do have important information to share." She shrugged like she didn't give a damn while the Devil looked at me with what might be confusion. Hard to say when half his face is covered.

Trying to explain I took out my phone with the image of Jessica Jones that Mac had recovered. "We found this on the burner phone in the bag and I tried to contact Jessica Jones hoping she'd know something."

The superstrong PI stood up and asked me for a look at the picture as well. "Yeah, I remember." She gave the Devil a weird glance. "This is a picture of me following around a politician who was blackmailed. Someone claimed to have proof that he's a pedophile. His wife actually hired me to find out if he was guilty."

Hearing the word "pedophile" from someone who looked like Gia who was the daughter of one, made a knot form in my stomach. I just stared at the woman's pale face framed by long black hair. She didn't wear a lot of makeup like Gia did, in fact she didn't look like she cared about her appearance at all or maybe all she wanted was for people to leave her alone. I could relate to that.

Trying to get a grip on myself, when she gave me back my phone I refocused on what she had just told us and how it could relate to Daredevil's video. So, Jessica Jones was looking into a politician, trying to find prove that he didn't have a sexual interest in children. I shuddered. "Was he? Guilty?"

"No. He was was a creep, but not that kind. Not the kind his wife minded." Another eyeroll. "It was a bit difficult to find concrete evidence that this was complete bullshit, but I found enough clues, alibis and things that didn't add up in any way. It was cleverly done, but there's no doubt that it was a smear campaign with all the information his wife could provide."

"So, you believe Daredevil was framed," I concluded.

"Yeah... I think there's something wrong with that footage. It reminds me of my case and the fact that you stumbled across that photo of me makes me feel that it could be the same people behind this." She then gave me a bunch of papers. "Look at this if you want. I can also mail you some other stuff I gathered. There's a video that was faked as well."

The vigilante sighed when I took the folder from Jessica. "Thank you. I think this will help a lot." I can't deny that I was relieved, too. For a moment.

"And now, fuck off." But even Jessica Jones smirked. She also added towards the vigilante: "And maybe get some new armour..."

"Look, Jessica, if Hogarth isn't doing it, I could help with your sister..."

Hogarth again. Why did that name ring a bell?

"She defended Salinger. And you know what? It's too late to help Trish. She made her choices and she has to deal with the consequences. It's not your fault that she tried to imitate you badly."

That's when the name Hogarth started to make sense. I tried to remember... Karen mentioned it. At the law firm Chao & Benowitz. She told me over drinks later how that woman left the firm. And if the vigilante thought that he could help instead of her with a legal problem...

That meant Daredevil was a lawyer. Suddenly I looked at him in a new light, barely registering the way the PI was trying to throw us out of her office, when things finally clicked into place and it all became very obvious.

Embarrassingly obvious in fact. 

My suspicions about Matt Murdock back at Columbia, Daredevil's strange familiarity, both of them losing their dad when they were young, the vigilante's concern for Foggy and Karen, Foggy asking in his office if he had told me before bomb went off...

"Holy shit it's you!", I blurted out and the two allies stopped bickering to "stare" at me. "And you let me believe that you died and I was responsible!"

I saw HIM gulp and "not Gia" blink, curse and stroll back behind her desk.

"On second thought," Jessica Jones said producing two more glasses with a sly grin. "Why don't you hang around for a bit. Because I think this is gonna be good."

The Devil hesitated for a second and then took off the black cloth revealing Matt Murdock's sad puppy dog eyes and I felt the urge to punch him. Hard. He sighed. "I could use a drink I think. What about you, Veronica?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we are. She finally knows! :)
> 
> And I pretended that Jessica and Matt did have distant interaction after or during their last seasons. Hope that's alright for the purpose of this discussion.
> 
> By the way, if anyone ever writes a fic about Matt representing Trish after season 3, I'd give it kudos, comments, posts on tumblr (Not that a lot of people are reading these, but it's the thought that counts, right?). All I'm saying: I'd be very eager to read it....


	11. The Thing About Blame

Matt Murdock tilted his head in a way that reminded me of Pony doing just that and suddenly I remembered that I'd seen him do it as the blind lawyer and the fucking Devil of Hell's Kitchen. "I was right about you back in law school! And I felt like such an ass all these years for accusing you!" Jessica raised her eyebrows, probably hearing for the first time that I knew this man already, or at least I thought I did. But I always knew something was off about him and I should have trusted that instinct.

Why did he have to make me feel like an idiot again and again?! He even comforted me after the explosion in which I believed that he died. Who does things like that?

"I really am blind..." The fact that he didn't meet my eyes is all that kept me from storming out immediately. I did not take that drink Jessica offered, though.

And then I remembered the way he fought, preferably in the dark, and I remembered his good hearing. He did not seem to depend on sight, so it made an absurd sort of sense that he was blind. "Of course, you are..." It might have sounded like sarcasm, the way I said it. 

When I met Jessica's eyes, I finally didn't see Gia there, but a woman who understood. She also thought he was dead after all. Buried under a building. Did he also survive that without a scratch? No, she did ask him to get new armour. 

Anyway...

Suddenly I remembered another discussion we had years ago, when we were talking about those heroes leaving all this destruction in their path and getting lauded anyway. Foggy said we should be happy to have their protection. Matt and I agreed that those fucking hero types needed to be watched also, or they would lose their respect for the lives of "ordinary" people. Or something like that. Especially Stark he didn't trust. Never in a million years would I have imagined him becoming one of them. Much less someone as violent as Daredevil. Then again, I should have known he had that in him, shouldn't I?

I also thought it was impossible to do this as a blind guy, but obviously I was wrong. So very wrong. And I needed to process all that without seeing the lawyer study my reaction in whatever weird way he did, while Jessica waited for us to take the drinks she had poured.

"I think... I have to go," I uttered and started to leave, prompting Matt to suddenly jump into action.

"Veronica, wait! Let me explain..." He rushed to cut off my exit and stopped me from walking through the door by grabbing my arm roughly. "Please, you have to understand. Do you remember years ago, during the incident..."

"What is there to explain, Matt?!", I spat. "You got your revenge for your father's death with Elektra back in college and you got a taste for it, didn't you?" His jaw dropped at the revelation that I knew about that, realising that he wasn't the only one keeping things secret. "I don't need to know how you do it. This is the city of the Avengers after all where PIs apparently have super powers and I know your hearing is pretty good. What else is there to know? You told me why you do it already." I also remembered how it felt. Us comforting each other. Or so I thought. Because he didn't even think he lost anyone in that explosion, did he? "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I was afraid you'd expose me. Are you gonna tell anyone? Foggy and Karen..." His voice sounded like he was pleading with me and I didn't know that he was just terrified of letting them down again.

"They know, right? How can they work with you knowing that it could end their careers if anyone finds out... or knowing how dangerous it is for them?!"

"Veronica, it's their choice." He looked down, but I still saw the pain on his face. "Please, don't tell-"

"I won't tell anyone! I could never do that to them." I wouldn't have done that to him either, although back then I was too mad to point that out. "Satisfied?! Can I go now?"

"Matt, let her go or I'll make you." Jessica's voice cut through our argument like ice through fire.

I knew he was about to step away, but apparently not without saying one more thing that almost ruined our fragile friendship forever. "You know what? You're a little hypocritical for accusing me of putting my best friends in danger, when you're the reason your husband is dead."

I couldn't believe he said that.

And neither could he it seemed, because he flinched right afterwards and his fingers were still tightly curled around my arm. "I didn't mean that."

I just glared at him in shock, now fully aware that he wouldn't see it anyway. "Let. Go," I said through clenched teeth. Since he wouldn't listen I then took my taser from my bag and freed myself from his grip by force. 

And I hoped it hurt as much as it looked.

"Not that this isn't a little gratifying, but you have to know that he let you do that to him," Jessica commented and I saw Gia in her again.

"I don't care."

"You will." I looked back at Matt who was trying hard to gain back control, but he couldn't say anything yet. And I was done listening anyway. I stormed right past him fuming with anger. 

Running around without a clear direction in mind I didn't know where to go. At least this was one mystery solved. It should have made it possible to move on to another one, but first I needed to calm down, clear my head.

This didn't really matter, I told myself. I just had to catch the guy who put the bomb at Murdock's law firm. I didn't need his help to do that. What I should have realised was that this was obviously a strategy to break up our little team, because together we were getting too close. Brett, Matt and I were unravelling this mess slowly, but surely.

The video of Daredevil bashing up Martin however did not as intended convince me that my sort of ally was behind the man's death. Jessica's take on the whole thing made sense and my gut was telling me that Matt Murdock might be a liar and a bastard, but he wasn't a killer. And maybe it was time to trust my instincts about the man again, after it turned out that they were at least on the right track back in law school.

So, I started looking through Jessica's evidence and this took me in another direction. A lawyer called Ron Simmons - the very one Karen and me saw at Chao & Benowitz and Adam identified as well - briefly had the politician as a client who was accused of being a pedophile. He made sure that an article which had very dubious sources was taken offline. And Jessica also had pictures of Simmons with the woman who hired me, whatever her name was. She was the one who ended up taking Jessica's picture and she took that video of Martin's supposed death, so I decided it was her I needed to find, since Simmons appeared to have vanished. 

In the pictures the lawyer seemed to be flirting with her and I thought I recognised the bar they were taken at. It was close to the building of Chao & Benowitz and I lost no time going there. Since the woman didn't wear a wig I also figured that Simmons met the real her. Maybe this would get me closer to finding her.

When I entered the bar I was lucky enough to spot the bartender who was also in the pictures. I just hoped that my client was memorable enough, as I approached her and started my little act. Luckily there weren't many customers, so I immediately had the woman's attention. "Thank god, you're working tonight! You need to help me."

"Do I know you?" She raised an eyebrow while cleaning some glasses for the next guests.

"No, probably not, because I saw you weeks ago and I was just another customer..." I sighed and then started babbling: "I came here with my distant cousin and he started talking to this woman at the bar. He's a bit of a loser, but earns well and wore a nice fitting suit." I cringed and added: "He probably seemed a little too eager. You know? Long story short: She called him to say that she was pregnant, but didn't leave a number or address. I really need to find her... You're my last hope..."

The bartender shook her head. "Can you be a little more specific, maybe? We have a lot of rich guys come here. And many of them try to chat up women when they're drunk enough."

"Oh, we took a picture of them that night." Now I was the eager one. I gave the woman behind the bar the best shot where my client's face was recognisable and I was relieved when her face lit up a little.

"Ah, I know that guy. His name's Ron something. He works at Chao & Benowitz." She smiled at me, happy to give me a name, although it wasn't really the one I was hoping for. "Haven't seen him in a while. She also didn't seem that interested at first. Especially when she heard that he was a lawyer. The girl had a grudge." 

"Are you sure it was him?" She took another long look at the picture. I didn't know what else to ask to find out more about her without revealing that they were both complete strangers to me. "If she didn't like him, she probably didn't give him the right name, but did you happen to catch one...?"

"I think, she told him it was Alison." That seemed close enough to Ally. "I remember, because he kept getting it wrong and she corrected him again and again." And so my client finally had a real name. Alison. She had dark blonde hair, and months ago it was long enough to wear a pony tail. She also had blue eyes and wasn't a fan of lawyers. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

"Do you remember that they left together? Did she maybe say where she lived?"

"No, that would have been after my shift. You guys were here quite a while. It was a birthday party, right?" She frowned at me. "I don't remember you there, but you're right that it was probably too long ago and I can recall big groups like that, but one single person I only remember if they spend a long time at the bar with some regular. Your mystery woman did." She shrugged. "I hope this helped, because I think that's all I have."

"Shit."

She pushed a shot in my direction and said in sympathy: "Here. On the house."

I smiled and took it. Honestly I needed one with the day I was having. I even regretted declining Jessica's drink, but I stayed in my role. "It sounded like she was going through something at the time and I hoped that would help me find her... Otherwise, I'd be surprised someone would willingly spend so much time with Ronny."

"Well, she could have done worse. The worst thing you could say about him is that he's boring. He did seem to loosen up with her, tried to be a little more adventurous and it seems to have worked."

"How so?"

She leaned forward then. "Okay, since she may be in trouble, I'm gonna tell you this: After finding out that he's a lawyer she almost left and started ranting about a neighbouring family that had some legal issues. I guess, that was why she was in such a bad mood?"

I nodded, memorizing everything she was telling me. But maybe I had to give her some hints to jog her memory, so I said: "Ron remembered a family. The Coopers. They had a son who died allegedly in a drug war..."

"Okay, no idea about the name, but it could have been something like that. Ron then suddenly started to join in on her outrage and told her about this case he had where he was defending some asshole and he said he'd also had enough and was tired of others getting away with everything. They started whispering, as if they were conspiring or something. I think they were just kidding around and he was trying to act like he wasn't quite as proper as he looked."

"You don't think he could be a cheat?"

Shrugging she answered. "You never really know, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd have the nerves for it to be honest." Considering that the only reason I even noticed him was because he freaked when Karen and me showed up at his workplace, it sounds logical that the guy wasn't a born criminal.

"Good to know, if my cousin is gonna be a dad... I don't want to make things worse for her," I sighed. "Well, thank you. I think that'll help me find her."

"You're welcome." The bartender smiled and I gave her a tip for the drink. She winked and went on to greet a new customer.

Checking on my phone I found a missed call from Brett and then a message with the address of this Cooper family that Martin and Alison were talking about. Things were finally getting somewhere. He wrote that he'd be there in 20 minutes and I responded that I was on my way.

I took 15 minutes longer though, because the address was in a very different area, far away from the fancy bar next to the law firm. Brett was waiting for me outside the building and before we went in something slipped out of my mouth that despite everything else that I learned this day was still circling in my head on the way over: "When you found out who he is what stopped you from bringing him in and taking a promotion?"

Seeing the way his mouth opened and closed, I knew he was afraid to say the wrong thing. After looking around to make sure that no one was listening I clarified quietly. "I'm talking about Murdock."

"He told you?"

"No, I found out and he was a complete ass about it."

"Ah," he said, nodding knowingly. "It wasn't so bad in my case. I basically ran into him on my way to a bank robbery in the light of day, so he wasn't dressed up as... you know.... I saw that he was anxious and since I've already had some suspicions I just told him if he needed to go save someone I didn't see him there."

"And?"

"He put something over his eyes and then I saw the blind man climb up a building so fast that I almost thought I imagined our strange encounter. He saved 17 hostages that day and in the evening I went to his place and he answered all my questions reluctantly. Told me how this blind man called Stick trained him as a kid. You know the tale, I guess."

I had to remind myself that Matt was ready to answer my questions as well, but I wasn't ready to hear his answers. It still hurt though that he apparently trusted the cop enough to reveal himself on purpose, while he was clearly worried that I'd rat him out.

"He was trained as a child?" That part - even as angry as I was with him - was hard not to be shocked by. 

"He didn't tell you?"

"I didn't ask about how he did it. I knew him and his girlfriend got his dad's killer arrested back in law school..." For some reason, I felt the need to prove that I didn't know nothing. Knowing stuff was my thing after all. "I just can't believe he'd put Foggy and Karen in danger by working with them. There was a bomb in their office!" Planted by someone who was trying to hurt my friends...

Ok, fine...

Of course, Brett was really more Foggy's friend, so there was no need to explain to the cop what outing Matt as Daredevil would mean for their little firm. Or what being friends with the vigilante meant. "Veronica, it's not my story to tell, but if you're upset about being kept in the dark, even after that explosion, you should know that it was drilled into him to shut everyone out. To keep them safe. Foggy was actually the one who had to explain that to me later."

I rolled my eyes. That was just the kind of pointless hero-attitude I found so damn annoying. Not knowing shit didn't keep anyone safe. On the contrary, it was a recipe for disaster.

But his friends knew and I just wasn't one of them.

"It's their choice," Matt had said when I accused him of getting them in danger. But he winced like he didn't like this situation any more than I did. Now I know he blamed himself for everything that happened to them, even if it was out of his control. So, it made sense that he felt I was responsible for Logan's death as well. He might not have wanted to say it, but he surely thought this way. It was beaten into him and unlearning that was a process that had bearly started when I found out who he was.

I wasn't a complete stranger to those thoughts. It's not like I made a habit of wallowing in self blame, but death is a constant in my life as well. It started with my friend Lily and sure as hell wouldn't end with Logan.

Hearing Matt blaming me for it hurt, because it wasn't completely wrong. It wouldn't have happened if I was a florist. But Logan knew what he wanted. He made his choice and he was a soldier, so marrying me seemed less dangerous than the other part of his life. You would think.

We climbed up the stairs to the Cooper's apartment in silence and I tried to get my mind back on the case. I needed to find Ally or someone else might die. And Matt apparently thought that would be another death on my hands. But no pressure.

Jasmine Cooper was a little surprised when she opened the door to a cop and a private eye asking questions about her dead son Dave. It was clear that she expected this kind of investigation months ago. She repeated everything we've heard about the case so far and filled it with some more details. 

The problem was that there was no video at all, just a body filled with drugs and bullets. Could the boy just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time? He was an introvert who didn't have a lot of friends. Even his mother didn't have any idea how he would end up where he was found dead.

Eventually I asked her about a neighbour named Alison who apparently took her son's death a little more personal than Jasmine liked. "She means well, but at some point I had to tell her that it was our loss and we wanted to move on. She just couldn't accept that there was nothing we could do about it. It was starting to become a crusade for her and I didn't want to have any part in that. I had another son and he needed me, too."

She told me that Alison's place was at the end of the floor and her last name was Green. They hadn't been talking for a while, though. So she hadn't seen her the last couple of days either. 

I felt the urge to check if Alison was home, so I told Brett that I'd go knock on her door, while he finished asking some more questions about the cops who were working on the case.

Walking down the corridor I didn't expect to find Alison Green home. A part of me thought that maybe she just vanished with Simmons. I rang the bell and knocked on the door, but nobody responded. Just out of habit I tried if the apartment was even locked and was surprised when the door opened to an unlit living room.

It could be that she just forgot to close it properly, right?

For an investigator this kind of thing was like an open invitation. Softly pushing against the screeching door I stepped inside slowly. I had the sense to put on some gloves before I switched on the light, because I didn't want to leave any fingerprints anywhere that could muddle up evidence. This was a strange case and I had a feeling that I was close to finding something important. 

There was a little kitchen corner in the other end of the room. It was rather small, but looked comfy and inviting, especially with the setting sun shining some light on it. The lamp from the ceiling didn't do much to brighten the place which gave it a strange abandoned flair while little souvenirs and presents added character. Someone surely lived here, but when was the last time she stepped into the room and watered the plant next to the window? There was an ashtray full of cigarettes on the windowsill. One wall was filled with photographs, memories of Alison Green. I saw Jasmine in one of them with her two sons, smiling happily. 

The door next to the entrance led to a bathroom that looked much cleaner than the rest of the apartment somehow. There was a small red drop on the floor which could have been blood. But looking at the dustbin Alison might have been on her period recently or she could have just cut herself while shaving.

Still, my gut told me that something else happened here and it didn't take much longer until I was proven right. There was just one room left and I took a deep breath before stepping in. I saw the silhouette in the chair right away and knew that she was dead. Otherwise she would have heard me enter and sneak around I was sure. And when I switched on the light, I saw more blood on the floor.

Instead of going back to the Cooper's to get Brett I gave myself a minute with the body alone to process this turn of events. Careful not to step on the dried red patterns on the carpet leading to her, I inched closer. The woman I earlier alleged to be with a baby was covered in blood and stabbed in her throat. I had just found out her real name and now she was dead and I couldn't blame her anymore. I had only myself to blame, and maybe Matt. For taking so long, for not sharing the video right when we'd gotten it. For not seeing that she was playing a dangerous game and needed help just as much as Martin and Dave Cooper.

Alison Green was sitting in front of a computer and I recognised her as the woman who hired me even without the wig. She was my reason for coming to Hell's Kitchen, apart from my curiosity about Daredevil. She might have been in danger even before she contacted me. But who knows? Death was following me around, because I was looking for it. And maybe Matt was the same. Maybe we'd both seen or heard too much to leave these things alone. But I didn't think we really were to blame for that.

Unless of course one of us actually took a life which I was pretty sure he hadn't done even though that video with Martin suggested otherwise. I had to make sure that noone else was killed which meant we needed to find out who really was responsible for all this. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, we survived 2020! Cheers to every single one reading this and hopefully looking forward to the good things to come. If not in real life then at least in fiction. ;)


	12. That Incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if the plot seems a little slow, but some characters tell their story the way they want... ;) And I just don't have the energy to fight them on it right now. I swear we're getting somewhere.

2012: Columbia University

That my time in New York was always more sane and normal wasn't the entire truth, of course. But another species attacking the city you're studying in is just too bananas to really put into the drawer of my experiences there. It's too damn alien and it just had nothing to do with law school.

But it was also the first time I unknowingly encountered that other side of Matt Murdock. The side that didn't argue with me and tried to protect me from the shadows.

I was actually sitting outside of a café enjoying a cup of coffee when it started. People sounding even more busy than usual and then also a little more anxious. A really strange noise echoing through the streets, followed by a tense silence as everyone started to take out their phones and look at them with a deep frown. I was about to ask for my bill when I saw the waiter stare at something behind me.

When I turned around I saw it, too. Still far away, but gigantic enough to be seen. A mysterious object that moved between two skyscrapers. It looked like a spaceship in a sci-fi-movie, but the way that it was floating through the air reminded me more of a fish in the water. It is to date still the strangest, most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life. A moment that redefined our perception of the universe and I - like all New Yorkers - was witness to it. 

As quickly as I could I grabbed my bag and ran into the café with everyone else. It seemed safer than being out on the streets at least. A couple of minutes later the city outside looked like a warzone and we were all watching in shock from behind the windows as creatures that we've never seen before were attacking us. We didn't know for what and why then. There were occasional cheers when people caught glimpses of some strange characters fighting back, a team of superheroes apparently. Some of them I had not heard of at this point. I saw Iron Man fly by once, but I eventually went back to check on my phone where others were stuck.

Foggy was with Marci when it all started and she had to basically order him to stay put after his blind roommate informed them that he was alone at home, studying. None of us thought he could have been lying and be out there in this battle field instead.

It sounded like I was a little closer to the center of the fight than they were and I sent them a picture of what I saw. The building on the other side already looked torn apart and I didn't even see how it happened. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know. Two cars were also flipped upside down. Foggy responded by wishing me a good apocalypse and told me to find him afterwards, so we could form a group of misfits trying to survive in a changed world. I knew he was terrified, so I told him that he should count me in. If this was that kind of film I think Foggy would be the character in that scenario who doesn't seem to contribute much, but without his jokes and his ability to keep everyone together, our little team would die for sure. Even Matt.

I also called my dad to tell him where I was at and what I was seeing before the mobile network crashed. He was watching the spectacle on TV already in another part of the country and probably had already seen some vivid videos of what we were up against.

Things then got a little quiet. While we were trying to figure out if this was a good or a bad sign we were all listening closely to the radio that someone put on, so we could follow the news. 

"I saw them come from the sky", an eye witness insisted and she wasn't the only one describing where this army came from, which made this some kind of alien attack I guessed. It was a lot to take in.

I wasn't even starting to comprehend what this really meant when suddenly one of these apparently alien space ships crashed right through our window probably killing half a dozen people hiding there with me instantly. I turned around and saw a waitress yelling for us to follow her to the back entrance. A panicked crowd followed her instructions before we could make contact with this rather unfriendly species. I tried not to push anyone to the ground, but I was also running on auto pilot and things are a bit of a blurr now. All I can tell you is that we were all scrambling for our lives out there.

Things slowed down a bit when we ran onto the street, not even sure if we were being followed. I tried to at least use the smaller alleys, the ones I'd usually avoid, not just at night. But I think the aliens had other targets anyway. All I could do was move further away from the fight and maybe find a place to hide that people hadn't closed and barricaded yet. I wasn't even sure if I'd find the campus open, but without a better idea where to go I moved in that direction.

It was eventually a group of criminals that cornered me on my way there. I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe they wanted to make a quick buck in the chaos. But I don't think their little gang survived that day and frankly, I didn't have any sleepless nights over their demise. Not after one of them grabbed my neck and twisted my arm, while another one forced my bag with the taser out of my hand. What can I say? I was tired of running for my life and outnumbered. There was nothing I could do, alright?

I was pretty much prepared to die a miserable death by a rather ordinary mugging in the middle of an alien invasion on earth, when someone attacked the man holding me. Dropping to the ground I started coughing, trying to get my breath back. When I looked around again I saw someone in a hoody beating the shit out of that stupid gang. He then threw my bag at me and I caught it on reflex while he yelled: "Hide in the dumpster!"

I looked around and saw a pretty clear path to get away from there, but where to? I've been running from street to street during these longest hours of my life without an idea where I could be safe. His suggestion however didn't look very inviting either...

I must have stood in front of the dumpster for about two undecided seconds when the man just opened it and gave me a rough push. I practically tumbled inside headfirst and found myself in the dark smelling the garbage around me.

My first reaction was that I was mad at my my savior thinking that this can't have been necessary, but I quickly had to admit to myself that me and my taser were a little outmatched in this situation. Plus: I was too exhausted to put up much of a fight after running around like a panicked chicken and the dumpster - as unpleasant as it was - did seem to allow me some rest at least for a little while. I wasn't going to get comfortable in there.

Relaxing was out of the question anyway, because the sounds outside were even more worrying when you didn't see what was happening. I could hear the fight in the street next to me as well as the bigger battle that was going on. Screaming, groaning, punching, shots and explosions could be heard from various directions. Eventually, the door opened up again for a second and I quickly registered that the man who helped me before jumped in next to me.

"They're coming...", he muttered ominously and I braced myself, not sure what to expect. Then suddenly things got really loud. There was strange scream that sounded like a horrifying war cry and it was really close by. With a bang something or someone crashed right against the dumpster and made a huge dent in it. It also caused some light to shine inside through a slit, so I could glance at my company and make out where he was cowering. He was covering his ears with both hands and had both feet against the other side of the dumpster as if he was trying to keep us from getting crushed. I then decided to get into a similar position. Maybe it would help if we both pushed back, I thought.

I sat like that for about a minute when suddenly there was an even louder bang that sounded like an explosion and the entire dumpster was moved around by a powerful wave of heat and smoke. The stranger then also lost his footing and tumbled against me. There was another huge dent pushing us closer, so it wasn't like we had much room in there. In fact I could feel him shiver, while he was still desperately clutching his ears, as if they could fall off from the cacophony out there.

"Please, you have to understand," Matt tried to remind me when I finally found out who he was. "Do you remember years ago, during the incident..." 

He wanted to explain it then. How his hearing worked and how he knew I was out there. He even tried to look after me so many years ago and I never would have imagined that he cared enough to bother. Things would probably have been different if I had known...

But I had no idea who that stranger was. All I knew was that he saved my life and that he seemed scared, too. Much more than he appeared before he shoved me into our hiding place.

When things slowly seemed to calm down and I stopped expecting to die any second I followed my instinct and gently lay a hand on his shoulder. He gasped. "You okay?", I asked, but he didn't reply. In a hopefully soothing manner I then started to rub against his arm, trying to remind him that we were alive.

After a while there was complete silence and eventually he removed his fingers from his head and mumbled a barely audible "thanks".

"I think I'm the one who has to thank you," I told him and leaned back against dirt and steel. I didn't care anymore. I was just glad to be alive.

It wasn't much later that it seemed like a switch was turned around in his head. I barely registered that he was moving when he was already out of our dumpster and offering to help me out as well. I wasn't eager to move around again, but still accepted his hand, since I thought sticking to his side was probably my best option. 

And that turned out to be a wise decision, because outside I saw the corpses of the men who attacked me earlier and I'll spare you the details, but it wasn't pretty. Matt led me to a roof that was far enough from the Battle of New York and also had good options to hide away. Before I could thank him again however, he was already jumping to the next building, probably on his way to help someone else.

I was left there to watch all of it unfold and I never forgot that it wasn't an Avenger who saved me that day. It was just some random dude. He was afraid like all of us. Who wouldn't be in front of so much destruction? But he stepped out anyway, ready to fight it out till the end, help where he could, even if he was limping already. Even if he probably had just lost his hearing for a moment in the middle of this deadly chaos. But he was trained for a war, so he got back up and fought it. I didn't really see his face. Even the glimpses that I saw under the shadow of his hoody were sprinkled with too much blood.

I didn't remember any of this after finding out who Daredevil was, so I wasn't aware that he'd already saved my life long before he became a vigilante. After seeing Alison's body I knew that staying close to Matt would be safer, but I had used the taser on him, making pretty clear that I didn't want anything to do with him. It fell on me to make the first step to reconciliation, if there could be one.

To make sure that he wouldn't just ignore me I actually went to his apartment. But he didn't open the door. "Matt? If you're home please let me in. I overreacted, alright? You just really hit a nerve, as I'm sure you can imagine. Can we.... talk? Please?"

Maybe he just really didn't want to listen to what I had to say. Or he just wasn't home. I couldn't know for sure. I tried calling him, but he didn't pick up and I also didn't hear any phone ringing through the door. I didn't leave a message, because I didn't know what to say. 'Sorry for tasing you, but I really need your help' seemed a little selfish. I just came back to him, because I wanted to feel safe again. And I was still mad about what he said to me. His words had stung, because I knew he meant them. In my head, I might have thought that I forgave him or at least I understood where he was coming from. But was I really sorry for hurting him right back? No. I just needed him. And maybe this was why he wouldn't open up. We were both bad at apologising and stubborn to the core.

A minute later while I was still thinking about how I could fix this, I got a text from Matt. It just said: "I'm following Michaels. Will contact you if I have news."

I tried to take this as a good sign. Sure, I had a lot of questions, but it really wasn't the right time for them and there were other things to worry about. His message clearly said that I needed to wait for him to contact me, but it also seemed that we would continue to share information. At least that's what I was hoping for. In Neptune I wouldn't mind working a case alone, but this wasn't my turf - and it was probably a much more dangerous one.

Since there was nothing I could do on the Matt-front, I decided to keep investigating and hoping things wouldn't get too life-threatening in the meantime. Brett and I had a couple of new leads after all. Although, he also seemed annoyed about how quickly things moved on the Alison Green case, at least compared to Cooper's and Irving's. 

Sure, Martin Irving's death did get some media coverage, but only after there was a video of a popular vigilante beating him up. Before that it didn't seem like anyone cared and it's not like his sister Nina was quiet.

"You think we should release the other video?", I asked Brett doubtfully. "Maybe we should have right when we found it..."

"I don't know. Something is just fishy about it and I feel like Michaels is keeping an eye on me. I think he knows that we're in contact and he has friends high up."

"We could still give it to the media."

"That would probably get Matt off the hook," he mumbled unenthusiastically.

"You don't want that to happen? I thought he was your friend...?"

"He was- He is, I mean. But, this isn't all about him." The police officer rubbed his hands across his face in frustration and I thought I understood. 

"You know, once we have the people behind it all or at least Penn's little fanboy, I can try and help you on the other cases?"

"I'm not sure there's a lot we can do anymore unless we get some new evidence and witnesses...." He sighed and managed the hint of a smile. "But I appreciate the offer."

And then we went through Alison Green's death once more. It was pretty obvious that she was stabbed and we did have a rough idea how long she's been dead, but her killer didn't leave us with a lot of clues who he or she was. My former client was probably on the computer, but I didn't expect anyone to find anything useful on there. They were trying to recover data, but I figured, if these people knew how to fabricate stories to blackmail or manipulate people, the way Jessica Jones' files suggested, then they wouldn't leave any traces behind. But maybe we got lucky.

And then I realised something: She had send data to me. Sure, Mac had said it was useless, but what if she didn't send it to manipulate me and make me follow the wrong clues. Maybe what she wanted to tell me was that all of it was a lie. I might have been the last person she talked to. And when I really considered that I thought it was possible she died around the time the bomb in the law firm must have been planted. That would have been right after she called me.

I tried to remember what she said. Something about needing my help. And then came those texts nudging me towards Nelson, Murdock & Page... But what if those messages were send by her murderer? Someone could easily have used her dead finger to open her phone and write to me. A chill went down my spine at the thought.

If my suspicion was right however, we'd know the exact time when she was killed. I told Brett about my theory and then went back to my hotel to go through the faked evidence, finally. At least I could match it with what Jessica found and maybe find out who else they blackmailed. Maybe that could tell me more about how they operated. And if Alison was killed for what she knew, maybe what she had sent would give me an idea who I was chasing after all.

On my way I got a call from Mac who also apparently had a bit of a breakthrough: "Veronica, I think I'm chatting with him. The asshole who dared to threaten you. Or us."

"No way. You're kidding!"

"I'm really not. He calls himself the Pennisher. I saw on the forum that he got agitated over that Daredevil video and apparently he's a fan as well." She chuckled and I heard that she moved the phone and started typing on her computer. "Em, by the way, he didn't really do that, right? Kill the guy the police officer hit?"

"Jury's still out on that, but I don't think so, no." I barely even thought about the possibility anymore, to be honest. It was one thing to think Daredevil made a mistake. It was quite another to believe Matt Murdock did it and wouldn't beat himself up over it. I knew that much.

"Good. Because I thought it looked sketchy as hell, too. You couldn't even see a lot in it and the light didn't look very natural sometimes. It was just like those videos from your client."

I didn't tell Mac that said client was dead now. Otherwise my dad would probably turn back up on my doorstep and force me to leave town. That was not gonna happen. "So, how'd you get in contact?"

"I implied that I knew something about this Daredevil video and acted all mysterious. I figured if I showed him the video of Martin we have then he might trust me. But now he wants to meet me. He says he needs to know my name and where I got that video from. He doesn't just believe anyone without confirming who they are."

Huh... who would have thought our Penn nut would be that suspicious of his sources. "But that means he also must have met whoever told him about me being in New York."

"That's what I was thinking, too. Plus, you will never believe what he sent me in return for the video of Martin. Something he believes noone else has seen."

"What is it? A video of kittens plotting to enslave humanity with the power their fluffiness? No, wait! It's about evil unicorns, isn't it?"

"Better. It was a video of you. And it implied that you framed Penn."

I stopped in my tracks. "Now you're kidding."

"Nope. And it was actually a quite convincing deep fake, although noone who knows you would buy it. I guess they gathered enough clips and soundbites of you on that forum. I'll send it to you and you can have a look at it."

Not sure if I really wanted to see that I nodded to myself. I did try to avoid talking to journalists and didn't even appear in that documentary, but it was a little annoying how willing some 09ers were to share anything I featured in or talk about me for some internet fame. "Right. So, that's how they baited him. I could meet him then and get the Police to arrest him. Maybe he can tell us who send the video as well."

"He'll be gone as soon as he realises it's you. Seriously, the way he talks about you as if you're some evil mastermind... It's chilling. He's crazy paranoid. And... I'm pretty sure he thinks that I'm either you trying to catch him or Daredevil. Can't you get him to go instead?"

Of course. I should have known it would come down to this. Maybe the case wasn't about Matt Murdock, because not everything was. Brett was right about that. But in the end whatever mess was going down in Hell's Kitchen I was slowly learning that he was going to be in the middle of it no matter what. And if I was gonna end up in a dumpster with anyone, I was lucky if it was this guy.

Would I get Daredevil to meet a crazy fan who also had tried to kill his alter ego with a bomb? Probably... However, would he make the freak lead us to the people who faked all those videos? I was not so sure about that. He may have a couple of hard-hitting arguments, but the "Pennisher" was clearly a man on a mission and it's difficult to argue with deluded people.

Unless... "I think... I've got an idea..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want to disappoint anyone or have you lose interest, so can you guys give me a hint if you would at this point expect Matt and Veronica to become friends or if you'd expect this to go in a more romantic direction? If you don't want to comment here you can also write to me on tumblr:  
> http://some-fiction.tumblr.com/  
> I will tag what it is gonna be in the next chapter, so you can also ignore it if you don't want to know. :)  
>   
> Here's my take:  
> Personally I wanted them to just become friends, because that is also a valuable relationship that sometimes doesn't get the credit it deserves in fandom. Plus: The timing is just wrong, because Veronica is grieving and it would be weird for her to jump the next hot guy she met. At least not in a meaningful way....  
> But if "Blind Bachelor" was any indication, I can obviously ship Matt with anyone and I do think this combo would have potential. It would be a slow burn though (it already is, I guess), or it might take a sudden fast forward turn, because these two can be very impulsive.  
> They could also have a brief fling and then agree to stay friends instead or I keep it platonic and then get these other ideas out of my system with a standalone... :) Clearly I had some thoughts about this. What can I say? It's just difficult for me to fully define these things before I actually get there. Can I just say "it's complicated"? ;)


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